USA.- The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), a division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, announced today that it has successfully completed the Global Social Compliance Programme (GSCP) Equivalence Process, becoming the world’s first third-party aquaculture certification program to do so.
The GSCP Equivalence Process enables the benchmarking of existing standards against international best practices as set out in the GSCP Reference Tools. The process lasted nine months and involved an initial self-assessment of the BAP program followed by independent, third-party validation by an Equivalence Assessment Panel of international experts.
The GSCP is part of The Consumer Goods Forum’s work to harmonize social and environmental requirements and avoid duplication of audits while ensuring that international standards are adhered to.
“Social accountability is a fundamental pillar of sustainable sourcing, and the CGF, through its GSCP, adds further credibility to BAP as the ‘Responsible Seafood Choice,’” said BAP Standards Coordinator Dan Lee, who led the engagement with GSCP. “Successful completion of the GSCP Equivalence Process comes on the heels of GSSI recognition and a great year for the BAP program.”
In October, BAP became the world’s first aquaculture certification program to be recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI). Also, the BAP seafood processing plant standards are benchmarked against the latest Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) food-safety requirements. BAP is the world’s only third-party aquaculture certification program to be recognized by GSCP, GSSI and GFSI. The Consumer Goods Forum administers both GSCP and the GFSI.
“The GSCP congratulates BAP on this successful completion of the Equivalence Process. The commitment necessary to completing the process is a clear testament to the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s dedication to furthering supply chain sustainability,” said Equivalence Process Manager Sonja Schmid.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
About GSCP & The Consumer Goods Forum
The GSCP is facilitated by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF“) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 50 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.
