Friend of the Sea certification guarantees the quality of fishery products and facilitates aquaculture activities towards sustainable fisheries and breeding, in order to:
The certification is based on the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union, which includes a set of tools to protect the natural renewal of fishery resources and the marine ecosystem, and the sustainable management of fishing activities by operators from all the Member States.
It is a process that covers all the players in this industry: from fishing companies to aquaculture facilities, from production plants to the catering chains.
Applies to:
Some of the main requirements to the fishing industry:
Some of the main requirements to the aquaculture industry:
The Assessment Team:
RINA has carried out over sixty audits worldwide using the FoS scheme, for different types and species of fish such as:
What is the credibility of FoS certification?
The FoS requirements follow the FAO Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fishery Products. Friend of the Sea only certifies products that are not derived from over-exploited stocks.
Does the certificate require preparing many documents?
FoS certification is relies on a series of very specific verifications that assess the organisation’s operating methods and compliance with the regulations. Therefore, the documents required are essentially those required by law.
For info related the standard in force please refer to the website