Standard Improvement on Sustainable Certification of Products
Sustainable seafood encompasses products caught or farmed in ways that preserve species viability, ocean health, and community livelihoods.
Wild-caught Sustainable seafood is sourced from well-managed populations, using low-impact fishing gear. Aquaculture provides an alternative, but concerns about environmental impact are growing alongside its rapid global expansion.
Certification schemes aim to increase consumer awareness of seafood Sustainability. They assure customers that products come from responsibly managed fisheries or aquaculture operations, verified by competent third-party certification bodies.
Friend of the Sea has developed a set of standards for certification for fisheries and aquaculture products in order to minimise the negative effects of aquaculture operations, providing a tool for fisheries and the fish farming industry to respect the marine environment, thus preserving natural resources for the future.
We continuously enhance our seafood standards, ensuring they align with scientific and technological advancements. This involves regular reviews and the development of new standards by Friend of the Sea. Thanks to this approach, our certification remains current and reliable.
Our seafood standards adhere to UN/FAO guidelines for eco-labelling of marine capture fisheries products and technical guidelines for aquaculture certification. Additionally, our Chain of Custody Standard guarantees traceability of certified seafood back to Sustainable sources.
For Auditors and Certification Bodies
With the collaboration of our Technical Committee and Stakeholders, our seafood standards are developed and revised in four stages, according to the Standard Development and Maintenance Procedure.
Work Plan of a Revision Process
- 1st phase: Comments and Suggestions
- 2nd phase: Revision of the comments
- 3rd phase: Voting process
- 4th phase: Management of votes and final decision
Public consultation period
At the beginning of the seafood standard revision process, the Technical and Scientific Department notifies the Technical Committee members, inviting them to send their comments by using a specific file elaborated for the respective revision process.
A wide range of stakeholders is invited to participate in the public consultations on our seafood standards. If you are interested in being a part of the stakeholders notified at the beginning of our revision processes, please, send an email to info@friendofthesea.org.
If you are interested in our internal records of revision processes (lists of contacted stakeholders, interested parties involved at each stage of the process and drafts of the standard), please, send an email to info@friendofthesea.org.
Documents under revision process and ToR (first phase)
Documents under revision process (after second phase)
Documents revised during the last revision process
Summary of the revision process on FOS Wild Standard v.4 and Audit Guidance v.2
Outside the public consultation period
We encourage all the categories of stakeholders and our Technical Committee members to share their inputs on how standards are working and how to improve them by compiling the Stakeholder Input Form at any time. In this case, the input will be taken into account during the subsequent revision process. The full guidance is available in the Stakeholder Input Procedure.
Our Work Program for Standard Setting and Revision and a list of Public Comments from our previous revision processes are available online. A list of Previous and pending stakeholder inputs is available online.
Stakeholders can register procedural complaints online regarding a revision process by filling in the Complaints and Appeals Form. The full guidance is available in the Complaints and Appeals Procedure. Unsolved complaints shall be assessed during the subsequent revision process. A list of Previous and Pending Complaints is available online.
