ASC's new feed standard Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Feed Standard 1.01 addresses one of the biggest potential impacts of aquaculture – namely the production and supply of feed for farmed fish.
ASC's new feed standard Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Feed Standard 1.01 addresses one of the biggest potential impacts of aquaculture – namely the production and supply of feed for farmed fish.
Earlier this year, Skretting Chile became the world's first salmon feed factory to achieve the ASC feed standard, and now we at Skretting Canada are ready to be certified according to the new standard for responsible feed production with strict requirements for both environmental and social considerations.
In November, the certification company Bureau Veritas will come to audit us, and in that context, we invite neighbours and members of the local community to submit comments or input to the auditors who will assess Skretting's factories in Vancouver & St Andrews.
This provides an opportunity to share input on environmental impact, social responsibility and the factories. The comments will be taken into account as part of the audit process, which aims to ensure that the factories operate in accordance with the standard's requirements for sustainable and responsible feed production.
If you have any comments you would like to share with the certification company Bureau Veritas, you can do so at Our Neighbor Form.
Our feed factories already meet strict requirements when it comes to the environment and social responsibility, but now we document that the ingredients come from socially responsible suppliers, and that they are environmentally friendly raw materials, all according to the new ASC feed standard.
ASC builds on the principles of responsible aquaculture (aquaculture) and extends this to also apply to the feed factories and their suppliers when they now introduce the feed standard. As a company that is in the process of being certified, Skretting is actively working to meet all the requirements that are set.
With the new ASC feed standard coming into force in January 2023, with an almost 3-year transition period (Oct 2025), ASC is shining a spotlight on one of the biggest environmental challenges in aquaculture – feed production, and we at Skretting are ready to address this by ensuring responsible sourcing of raw materials.
When our factories are audited to the ASC standard, our factories are assessed and approved, giving our customers and consumers peace of mind that the feed used at ASC-certified fish farms is responsibly produced – whether it contains marine or land-based ingredients.
The ASC feed standard sets clear requirements that certified feed factories must increase the use of environmentally sustainable ingredients. Marine ingredients now make up around a quarter of our feed, and the rest comes largely from agriculture – such as rapeseed, soy, wheat and guar. These plant-based ingredients have their own environmental impacts, particularly related to deforestation and land-use change, which we at Skretting take very seriously.
For plant-based ingredients, as for marine ingredients, according to the standard, we will report on all that make up more than 1 percent of the feed, and we take the necessary steps to ensure that they come from responsible value chains.
Skretting has had approved auditors audit us in October 2024, and fish farms have until October 2025 to switch to ASC-certified feed to continue meeting the requirements of the ASC Farm Standard. With this, Skretting will ensure that North American fish farmers can also offer ASC-certified food in the future.