Seafood Traceability Archives - Page 3 of 5

Legit Fish is Adding Validity to a Peculiar Part of the Seafood Industry

March 14, 2018 — Certain entrepreneurs have an interest in a particular topic or industry that serves as an underlying theme to their career.

Taking a look at the career of Legit Fish Founder and CEO Michael Carroll, you will see he has been involved with the seafood industry for nearly 30 years. Carroll has worked as a commercial fisherman, in various marketing roles selling cod and haddock to grocery stores, and as a business consultant for seafood-companies.

And now, he is the founder of a seafood-focused tech startup in a city both catered to tech and seafood.

Legit Fish provides an administrative and tracking platform for seafood offloaders and independent fisherman to certify and market their fish as local. The software application replaces the current paper and Excel logistics systems with a cohesive cloud-based system that offers a scalable and unmatched level of traceability in the seafood industry.

The seafood offloader simply inputs the vessel, species, sizes, and relevant harvest information which is automatically transmitted to federal harvest records, inventory, sales, accounting etc. substantially reducing labor and transaction efficiencies. The application verifies the accuracy of the product information against the official government harvest record through proprietary API access and approves the printing of labels.

“Our software is built for traceability and logistics. If you lie on a federal harvest record, there are consequences, therefore we ground our product origin claims on this record. It’s up to us to make sure that the seafood distributors are honest, while still trying to be a business solution,” Carroll said. “With our current business partners, we can authenticate landings in Boston, New Bedford and Gloucester which represents an estimated 70% of the New England Groundfish Fishery and 30% of Atlantic Sea Scallops Fishery.”

Read the full story at VentureFizz

Albertsons adds seafood traceability monitoring

March 8, 2018 — Albertsons Companies, which operates more than 2,300 grocery stores in the United States, has selected Trace Register to trace its seafood products.

Trace Register’s TR+ Analytics with CMCA (continuous monitoring continuous auditing) will enable Albertsons Companies to meet sustainability specifications in the seafood supply chain on every shipment, according to Albertsons.

“Trace Register’s leading-edge monitoring and analytics will help track the movement of our products from the oceans or farm all the way to our U.S. distribution centers so we can verify that our requirements for sustainable, responsible sourcing are met,” said Anthony Snow, director of seafood for Albertsons Companies.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Bedford Auction Owners Sign with Legit Fish – A Traceability Company, To improve Transparancy

March 9, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Legit Fish, a provider of advanced seafood logistics and traceability technology, today announced a deal with BASE New England who operates the largest seafood auction in New England and is based in New Bedford and Gloucester MA.

Legit Fish Inc. developed and is implementing this first of its kind, end to end logistics and traceability solution with Atlantic Coast Seafood Inc. (Boston MA).

This innovative cloud-based software application provides the domestic seafood industry with operational efficiencies as well as new cutting-edge marketing tools, linking off-loading, government reporting, inventory management, sales, accounting and an industry leading traceability system. The traceability application utilizes a patient pending system which offers the retail trade an unmatched level of traceability based on verification against the official government harvest records.

The application runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. This technology solution provides auction participants with the ability to use their mobile devices to purchase seafood products on the Auction platform and allow vessels to transmit hail information direct into the software via a multi language voice response app.

These advancements for BASE New England will allow them to clearly monitor “on the water” hail information as well as product sales compared to dealer reported federal records.

These third-party compliance tools have positive implications for BASE New England and the port of New Bedford in their effort to reopen the New England Groundfish Fishery Sector IX.

The owners of BASE have been very vocal in demanding resumption of fishing by Sector IX vessels because much of the catch of these vessels flows through the New Bedford Auction. During the time when Carlos Rafael was the leading groundfish operator in New Bedford, he was also the biggest supplier of fish through the auction.

Legit Fish Inc. will be attending the 2018 Boston Seafood Show and will be available for both product demos and detailed explanations of this new innovative technology.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Legit Fish rolls out the first cloud-based traceability technology for Massachusetts scallop and groundfish

March 8, 2018 — The following was released by Legit Fish:

Legit Fish (www.legitfishinc.com), a provider of advanced seafood logistics and traceability technology, today announced a deal with BASE New England who operates the largest seafood auction in New England and is based in New Bedford and Gloucester MA.

Legit Fish Inc. developed and is implementing this first of its kind, end to end logistics and traceability solution with Atlantic Coast Seafood Inc. (Boston MA). This innovative cloud-based software application provides the domestic seafood industry with operational efficiencies as well as new cutting-edge marketing tools, linking off-loading, government reporting, inventory management, sales, accounting and an industry leading traceability system. The traceability application utilizes a patient pending system which offers the retail trade an unmatched level of traceability based on verification against the official government harvest records.

On March 8^th 2018, Legit Fish Inc. signed a contract to further develop this system with BASE New England. In addition to the software application developed in Boston, Legit Fish Inc. will be expanding this system by creating a custom Auction application which will offer a high level of versatility and functionality. The application runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. This technology solution provides auction participants with the ability to use their mobile devices to purchase seafood products on the Auction platform and allow vessels to transmit hail information direct into the software via a multi language voice response app. These advancements for BASE New England will allow them to clearly monitor “on the water” hail information as well as product sales compared to dealer reported federal records. These third-party compliance tools have positive implications for BASE New England and the port of New Bedford in their effort to reopen the New England Groundfish Fishery Sector IX. Considering NOAA’s requirement for increased accountability measures to the operations plan of Sector IX, this revolutionary app provides a substantial technological improvement for the fishery and the sector.

Legit Fish Inc. will be attending the 2018 Boston Seafood Show and will be available for both product demos and detailed explanations of this new innovative technology.

About Legit Fish Inc.
Legit Fish Inc. provides Seafood off-loaders a complete cost-efficient ERP solution. Our innovative cloud-based application can be integrated with various other systems and provides an industry leading traceability system that is verified to the official government harvest records. This new system offers supply chain participants and retailers complete confidence in the origin of their products as well as a new innovative solution to market products. Further information can be found at www.legitfishinc.com.

New partnership to tackle seafood traceability

November 20, 2017 — A new effort funded by the U.S. government and several philanthropic foundations aims to improve seafood traceability by launching a knowledge-sharing network.

The Seafood Alliance for Legality and Traceability (SALT) will promote legal and sustainable fisheries by improving supply chain transparency and traceability. The partnership will bring together seafood industry representatives, nongovernmental organizations, and governments to collaborate on ways to combat illegal seafood and share best practices.

The exact activities of the partnership will be decided in the coming year with input from seafood companies and other interested parties.

“SALT will catalyze solutions that transform how the seafood industry and governments collect, share, verify, and ultimately utilize data in the pursuit of sustainable fisheries,” Tobias Aguirre, CEO of FishWise, told SeafoodSource.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Barcode-driven product tracking leads the way in enabling seafood traceability

October 23, 2017 — Beep. Beep. That ubiquitous sound, heard six billion times a day at the checkout counters in grocery stores and shops around the world, could be integral to the next phase of seafood traceability.

Barcodes – and their cousin, the QR code – may seem like simple things, but the data they hold could be the difference between knowing the origin of a fish or not.

For fishermen, seafood processors and others in the industry, better traceability and more efficient product tracking can reduce logistics costs while building customer loyalty. For environmentalists and regulators, traceability offers another tool to fight illegal and unsustainable fishing.

Compared to other food industries, seafood is behind in its use of GS1 Standards, the most widely used product-tracking system in the world, according to Angela Fernandez, the vice president of retail grocery and food service for GS1 U.S.

Though some seafood companies are making major progress, only about 25 percent have traceability programs underway, Fernandez said. Other food industries are further along. The meat industry, for instance, has been using GS1 Standards for almost two decades. More than 65 percent of the produce industry has implemented programs.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Industry’s challenge to seafood import monitoring program rejected

August 29, 2017 — A legal challenge to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) – a set of regulations requiring increased traceability for seafood imports – was rejected on Monday, 28 August.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and a large group of U.S. seafood companies, including Trident Seafoods, Fortune Fish and Gourmet, Handy Seafood, and Alfa International Seafood. The industry representatives argued that the program violated federal law and that their businesses would be harmed as a result of its implementation.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the plaintiffs, finding that the Commerce Department’s implementation of the program was not done inappropriately. Specifically, Mehta found that SIMP was issued under rules allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and Administrative Procedure Act, and that the department properly completed a regulatory flexibility analysis to determine SIMP’s impact on small businesses.

“The court finds that the rule’s issuance did not run afoul of the MSA, and the current Secretary of Commerce validly ratified the rule, thereby curing any alleged constitutional defect in the rule’s promulgation,” Mehta wrote.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood Traceability Rule to Remain in Place, Says Court

June 28, 2017 — As reported previously on this blog, concerns about illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) seafood fraud, led to a proposed rule to establish a traceability program for certain seafood species. The final rule establishing the Seafood Import Monitoring Program was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Department of Commerce, in the December 9, 2016 Federal Register.

The Program established permitting, data reporting and recordkeeping requirements for the importation of certain priority fish and fish products—including abalone, several types of cod and tuna, red snapper, shrimp and swordfish—that were identified as being especially vulnerable to seafood fraud. The rule requires seafood importers to trace the origin of the fish they import to either the specific boat that caught the full fish or a “single collection point,” to the day the fish was caught, and to the sector of the specific ocean where the fish was caught.

On January 6, 2017, the National Fisheries Institute, Alfa International Seafood, Inc. and others filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging what they called a “Midnight Final Rule.” In the suit, the plaintiffs questioned whether the Department of Commerce cut corners by, among other things, refusing to disclose for public comment the data that it relied on to identify the seafood species subject to the rule and by allowing “a low-level bureaucrat to issue a binding final rule absent a valid delegation of authority from the Secretary.”

In a June 22, 2017 ruling, Judge Amit P. Mehta did not overturn the final rule establishing the Seafood Import Monitoring Program. Rather, Judge Mehta wrote: “The proper course at this juncture—just months before the rule goes into effect—is to defer ruling on Plaintiffs’ broader challenge to the agency’s authority to engage in rule-making and, instead, afford the federal defendants an opportunity to submit a signed statement from a principal officer within the Department of Commerce that ratifies the rule.”

Read the full story at The National Law Review

WIDESPREAD MISLABELING OF FISH MEANS CONSUMERS ARE EATING A LOT OF BAIT AND SWITCH SEAFOOD

May 24, 2017 — In a diminutive shack in Eugene, Oregon, in a neighborhood that until recently was a better place to find meth than a decent meal, Taro Kobayashi is carving into the pinkest block of tuna I’ve ever seen.

Kobayashi is the owner and head chef of a restaurant called Mamé. He seats no more than 19 people at once, and if you didn’t make a reservation, you might not squeeze in until after 10 p.m. The cramp and the call ahead are worth it, though, because Kobayashi buys fish only if he knows precisely where it came from—the fisherman, the boat and the body of water. He doesn’t buy fish unless it’s in season, no matter how much his customers might ask for it. He can tell you all about why it’s better to wait five days to serve tuna (that gives the flesh time to recover from the stress of being caught) or how the yellow tint on the seared Nantucket scallops indicates they’re female. Knowing his fish is “really important,” Kobayashi says. When asked about the mystery meat served at most sushi bars across the world, he says, “You guys deserve better.”

You might assume his obsessive focus on quality ingredients would be common in a cuisine that features raw fish, but it isn’t. Even after a glut of media reports last year on the publication of an alarming book that exposed a rampant practice of fake fish being sold as real fish, complacent consumers are still being duped. In November, the nonprofit seafood sustainability advocate Oceana released a report updating its review of seafood fraud globally. The news was mostly bad. On average, the percentage of seafood mislabeled has hovered around 30 percent for the past decade, according to an analysis of 51 peer-reviewed studies published since 2005. “The snapper is 87 percent wrong?” says Kobayashi, referring to a stat from an earlier version of Oceana’s report. “That’s insane. We should be outraged, as a nation.”

The industry is changing but slowly. Sushi heads are newly alert, and the industry is scrambling to meet their demand for honestly sourced fish.

One of the nation’s few hubs for traceable seafood is Oregon, especially Portland. At Portland’s Bamboo Sushi, every item on the menu is tagged with a different-colored fish icon, signifying the range of sustainability and traceability offered. Bamboo is one of only a handful of sushi spots nationwide that hips its patrons to what they’re eating and where it came from. The reason that’s so rare, says founder Kristofor Lofgren, is because stocking quality fish is tough. “Most sushi restaurants are mom-and-pop,” Lofgren says. “They need fish. They call a local distributor. They ask, ‘What do you have?’ and the distributor asks, ‘What can you spend?’ They end up with an acceptable medium range.”

Read the full story at Newsweek

2017 SeaWeb Sustainability Summit taking place 5 to 7 June in Seattle

May 4, 2017 — The 2017 SeaWeb Seafood Summit, the international seafood sustainability conference, will take pace in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. from 5 to 7 June.

The summit aims to connect the industry’s environmental, social, and economic stakeholders and give them a forum for productive dialogue, partnerships, and solutions, according to a press release from Diversified Communications, which produces the summit in partnership with The Ocean Foundation [Editor’s note: SeafoodSource is owned by Diversified Communications].

The site of this year’s summit will be the Westin Seattle. The program includes a main keynote and daily plenary presentations as well as six breakout sessions, with topics ranging from traceability and transparency to business and management, aquaculture, IUU, and FIPs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source