Saving Seafood

GAA partnering with Thai Union, Devi Seafoods on traceability data-sharing project

February 26, 2021 — The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program is collaborating with seafood companies Thai Union and Devi Seafoods – along with traceability firms Wholechain and Legit Fish – to promote traceability in supply chains.

Their partnership is developing real-time digital solutions that will facilitate direct transfer of data from BAP-certified facilities to BAP’s internal data systems to support tracing of products in companies’ supply chains. This integration program is expected to meet traceability data requirements from seafood companies, the marketplace, regulators, and BAP itself, BAP said in a statement.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Stop & Shop ups its seafood sourcing transparency

February 19, 2021 — Stop & Shop will increase the transparency of the seafood it purchases via a new partnership with the Ocean Disclosure Project.

The Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based retailer, owned by Ahold Delhaize, will voluntarily report its seafood sourcing on ODP’s website – and will soon add the information to Stop & Shop’s website, a spokesperson for the retailer told SeafoodSource.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GSA spotlights “Worker Voice” in fight to ensure fair labor standards

December 14, 2020 — A new white paper commissioned by Global Seafood Assurances (GSA) is offering a comprehensive look at the tools and resources that exist to ensure social welfare on board the world’s fishing vessels.

The paper, Worker Voice on Fishing Vessels, documents the initiatives, organizations, and projects available around the world that offer fishing crews a means to voice concerns, have influence over matters that affect them in the workplace, and have access to third party advice and grievance mechanisms for remediation. It also identifies common definitions and terms used to describe these concepts.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Groundbreaking new global traceability standards met with rapid industry support

November 4, 2020 — Traceable and reliable seafood is crucial in helping businesses and stakeholders across the seafood sector retain their competitive edge in today’s industry. Companies participating in the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) – and the committee of seafood stakeholders steering it – know this well.

Launched in April 2017, GDST was established as a business-to-business forum with the core mandate of crafting a set of industry-wide traceability standards for seafood that would both enable interoperability as well as increase verifiability of products across sector systems.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

For signatories to Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration, progress is tangible

March 19, 2020 — Seafood companies across the tuna supply chain are making strides toward meeting the four commitments that are part of the Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration.

The Global Tuna Alliance – a consortium of companies seeking to improve the tuna supply chain – surveyed the 66 companies that signed the declaration in 2017 to assess their progress, compiling the results in a report to be released soon. About two-thirds of companies responded.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

First version of comprehensive data standards for seafood traceability released

March 17, 2020 — Dozens of methods of documenting seafood traceability – and hundreds of individual systems –  have emerged in recent years as companies across the seafood supply chain and the technology vendors that serve them seek to demonstrate the sustainable, legal origins of their products.

Rarely can those systems seamlessly interact with each other or share data, a gap that poses an ever-larger problem as regulators draft new traceability laws and consumers demand more information about the origin of their food.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Legit Fish launches traceability software

March 18, 2019 — Legit Fish, a Boston, Massachusetts-based traceability company, is launching a new traceability technology at Seafood Expo North America.

The company, which has partnered with the BASE Auction Company, is unveiling its new tool on 17 March at their SENA19 booth, 289. According to a release from the company, the system will enable vessels to “hail quantities into the auction that can be sold via a real-time cloud-based platform, with transactions clearing simultaneously in milliseconds.”

“Increasing stories around seafood fraud are eroding consumer trust; we’re seeing repetitive cases where seafood is claimed to be from local waters when it is in fact imported,” Michael Carroll, CEO of Legit Fish, said in a release. “The technology we are bringing to the market changes all of that because our traceability system is verified with the official government harvest records. No one else is doing this.”

According to Legit Fish, the software will be able to trace seafood from the dock to the dinner table utilizing cloud-based software that creates chain of custody control, ensuring that the products are traceable throughout their journey.

The debut of the new technology comes just over a week after Oceana released a study showing mislabeling of species is continuing to be a problem. That situation is what Legit Fish is attempting to eradicate, said Carroll.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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

 

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 8th 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.

 

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