Pacific Seafood has become the world’s first company to offer four-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) oysters.
Four-star is the highest designation in the BAP third-party certification program. For ‘fed’ species, it signifies that a product originated from a BAP-certified processing plant, was sourced from a BAP-certified farm, and has utilised seed and feed from BAP-certified hatcheries and feed mills.
“At Pacific Seafood we are dedicated to providing the healthiest protein on the planet, which is why having third-party validation by BAP of our entire supply chain for oysters is critical,” said Chris Jones, hatchery operations manager for US-based Pacific Seafood. “We are proud to begin offering our customers oysters that meet the highest standards of respect, throughout the entire supply chain, for the environment, workers and the community as well as animal welfare and food safety.”
Specifications
Oysters feed naturally on phytoplankton in the seawater, and therefore do not require feed from a feed mill, but because BAP’s mollusk farm standards contain many specifications for responsible stocking rates and monitoring of natural feeding processes which Pacific Seafood meet, BAP has determined that the company can offer four-star rather than just three-star BAP oysters.
Pacific Seafood’s BAP-certified oyster processing plant and farm are located in South Bend, Washington, while the BAP-certified oyster hatchery is located in Quilcene, Washington. This year the company will focus on certifying additional facilities and adding new four-star oyster products to the market. Pacific Seafood also operates a BAP-certified steelhead farm in Nespelem, Washington.
