First published: 11/12/2022
Fish quality marks are labels that help consumers make conscious choices when buying fish and seafood. They are awarded to products that meet specific sustainability and quality criteria. Half of all fish and seafood at the fishmonger now has a quality mark. Do you know the differences?
Table of contents
Why are quality marks important?
Sustainability
The global demand for fish is increasing, leading to overfishing and depletion of fish stocks. Labels help promote sustainable fishing practices and protect endangered species.
Environmental protection
In addition to regulating fishing, labels also focus on minimizing bycatch (the unintentional capture of other species) and the impact of fishing on the ecosystem, such as damage to coral reefs and seabeds.
Food safety and quality
They ensure that the fish you buy is safe to eat and meets high quality standards, from catching to processing.
Fair trade
Quality marks often also promote better working conditions and fair wages for fishermen and workers in the fishing sector.
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How do you recognize fish with a quality mark?
Fish with a quality mark is usually provided with a clear label on the packaging or stated in the product information. This label indicates that the fish comes from sustainable sources and/or meets certain environmental standards.
By purchasing fish with a quality mark, you contribute to the protection of oceans and fish stocks, while enjoying high-quality, responsibly caught fish.
Labels are therefore a useful guide for those who want to consume fish with respect for nature and future generations. We will explain the 4 most important ones here.
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ASC
ASC stands for Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). ASC is an independent international non-profit organization that manages and further develops a certification program for responsible fish farming.
The organization was founded in 2009 by the WWF and the Sustainable Trade Initiative. Fish with the ASC quality mark comes from farms that demonstrably treat nature well and comply with guidelines regarding social conditions for workers and local communities. By choosing fish with the ASC quality mark, consumers can be sure that they are buying responsibly farmed fish. fish, shellfish and crustaceans buy.
The ASC certification program rewards responsible farming practices and creates change through four interconnected initiatives:
- the ASC standards that assess whether nurseries operate responsibly
- the recognition and promotion of responsible farming methods through the use of a consumer logo that influences consumer choice
- connecting with commercial partners to create demand and market access for ASC-certified fish and seafood
- working with partners and fellow NGOs to increase demand for certified fish and seafood through consumer purchasing preferences
Any commercial, non-commercial or media organization can submit an application to use the ASC logo. Below you can see which logo license agreement is required for the different types of stakeholders.
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MSC
MSC stands for Marine Stewardship Council. MSC is an independent organisation that has developed an internationally recognised eco-label and certification programme for sustainable wild-capture fisheries.
To obtain the MSC ecolabel, a fishery must meet the MSC standard for sustainably caught fish. This is the strictest and most comprehensive environmental standard for wild-capture fisheries available.
And three principles must be met: the fish stock must be healthy and not overfished, the fishery must not have significant negative effects on the ecosystem, and the fishery must be well managed.
The MSC standard does not assess social aspects of the fishery. To obtain the MSC certificate, a fishery goes through an open and transparent assessment procedure. The assessment is carried out by an independent 3rd party involved: so not by the MSC or sector itself.
If a fishery has the certificate, the fishery is subject to annual inspections. Every 5 years, a full reassessment takes place to see if this fishery still meets the standard and has fulfilled all its agreements.
As a consumer, you want to be sure that a fish product with a quality mark really comes from a sustainable fishery or sustainable farm. You don't want a product with a quality mark to be secretly mixed with products without a quality mark.
The entire chain – from fishery/farm, trade, processor to restaurant or supermarket – is checked for this. This way, as a consumer, you can be sure that the fish in the store is guaranteed to be sustainable.
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ESF
The blue ESF logo can be found on most eel products in the Netherlands. ESF stands for Eel Stewardship Fund founded by DUPAN (Sustainable Eel Netherlands).
DUPAN was founded and is represented by the Dutch eel sector. Eel farmers, sellers, traders and other parties are allowed to place the ESF logo on their products when they join the ESF fund.
Being affiliated with the ESF fund means that part of the proceeds from the eel trade or sale goes to DUPAN. DUPAN invests in activities such as putting eel over the dike or releasing eel from the farm into the wild. With these activities, DUPAN tries to contribute to the recovery of the endangered eel. The logo says nothing about the condition of the eel.
The blue ESF logo is very similar to the logo of MSC (Marine Stewardship Council), the logo for sustainable wild caught fish. However, it is not comparable. Good Fish Foundation does not support the ESF logo. It has not been demonstrated that the measures that are financed actually contribute to recovery.
BAP
The Global Aquaculture Alliance and the Aquaculture Certification Council are organizations of farmers who have developed a standard and certification program for shrimp, tilapia and channel catfish farming and for fish feed production. The industry itself has set the standard, with little input from environmental organizations.
The standard is called Best Aquaculture Practice, or BAP, and includes environmental criteria. However, these are not very strict. The standard also lacks criteria for important sustainability aspects of farming, such as the origin and composition of fish food and the prevention of diseases and escapes. Nevertheless, the quality mark is a step in the right direction. Fish buyers are well advised to find out when purchasing products with the BAP quality mark whether the cultivation system is also certified. If only the processing plant is certified, this label says nothing about the sustainability of the cultivation system.
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Dolphin friendly not a sustainable quality mark
Be careful with the label 'dolphin friendly'.
In 1990, the American environmental organization Earth Island Institute (EII) developed a standard for dolphin-friendly tuna fisheries. This standard was intended to put a stop to the enormous dolphin bycatch and mortality in the driftnet and purse seine fisheries for yellowfin tuna in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The standard requires fishermen to avoid dolphin bycatch and not to use driftnets. Large boats must have an independent observer on board. Companies such as Princess Foods and Deepblue, which use the quality mark on their products, guarantee that the tuna has been caught in a dolphin-friendly manner, according to the EII standard.
The 'label' receives a lot of criticism. For example, there is no independent certification: companies themselves issue a declaration that they meet the standard. EII does carry out random inspections.
Dolphin bycatch
Secondly, the standard only concerns dolphin bycatch and not bycatch of other animals (e.g. turtles and sharks) or the impact of fishing on tuna stocks. The label therefore wrongly suggests that dolphin-friendly tuna is also sustainable tuna.
Finally, the quality mark can also be found on tuna products from tuna fisheries where dolphin bycatch does not occur at all, such as in skipjack fisheries. The use of the quality mark is misleading in this case. The World Wildlife Fund, Good Fish Foundation, Stichting De Noordzee and Greenpeace do not support this standard for the reasons stated above.
Sometimes tuna products carry other 'dolphin-friendly' labels or only a textual statement. In some cases, this is an attempt to circumvent the fees that must be paid for the use of the EII logo. In other cases, it concerns a different certification program, from a different organization and with different criteria.
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