The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has revised its requirements for seafood suppliers, processors and vendors, making its Chain of Custody Standard more streamlined, clear and accessible.
The updated standard includes a new specific set of requirements designed to work better for consumer-facing companies, such as restaurants, fishmongers and caterers. The standard also continues to offer a cost-effective ‘group chain of custody’ option for large organisations or groups of smaller businesses that wish to work together to get certified.
David Agnew, standards director at the MSC said, “The updates announced today are the result of a year-long consultation with industry representatives. They mean that the MSC scheme is more straightforward and applicable to different companies along the supply chain. Additionally, a separate version of the standard now gives greater access to businesses at the end of the supply chain, allowing them to meet growing consumer demands for sustainable and traceable seafood products.”
Organisations may now choose to be certified against one of three versions of the MSC Chain of Custody Standard, depending on the nature of their business: Default, Group or Consumer-facing.
Other key changes to the MSC Chain of Custody Standard include:
- Clearer requirements for identification and traceability of certified products
- More specific requirements for companies to confirm the certified status of products upon receipt, and to ensure they only purchase from certified supplier
- Greater emphasis on competency of staff in meeting the MSC Chain of Custody Standard, and more emphasis on interviews during audit, in addition to checking training records
- Revised requirements for ‘under-assessment product’ (formerly ‘UMAF’) – now only fisheries, farms, or organisations that are named members of the fishery/ farm will be eligible to buy and store under-assessment product
- MSC Chain of Custody Standard: Group requirements have been restructured and streamlined so they align better with the Default version of the standard
- A more equitable and consistent approach for timing of surveillance audits has been introduced. Most companies will now be on annual surveillance audits, with very specific categories of organisations qualifying for a reduced 18-month frequency
- A small percentage of surveillance audits (minimum 1% of clients for each certification body) will now be carried out as unannounced audits. These will be determined based on risk or randomly selected, and will replace a normal surveillance audit so there is no additional cost.
