Food from the ocean is essential to provide nutritious food with a smaller climate footprint than food production on land. It is a triple win: for people, for the planet and for the economy. Our great goal is to unlock the ocean’s potential to produce more food for a growing global population in a way that respects our planet and allows local communities to thrive, while providing consumers with products that are tasty, healthy and of the highest quality.
Independent third-party certification of sustainability and food safety of our operations according to science-based, rigorous and robust certification schemes, is essential to achieving our goal.
View the 2023 certification table (PDF, 184 KB)
Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative
Mowi’s certification policy (link) states that 100% of our annually harvested salmon volume, i.e., all Mowi farms – freshwater and marine – must be certified to sustainability standards recognized by the Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative (GSSI): ASC, GSA BAP and/or GLOBALG.A.P.
Since its inception, GSSI has worked closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its member states to operationalize and defend internationally agreed guidelines and tools in the seafood sector. It is therefore a recognized body that has developed a global benchmarking tool to provide formal recognition of seafood certification schemes that successfully go through a rigorous and transparent benchmarking process supported by FAO guidelines.
Standards evolve and change over time, which is why GSSI’s work benchmarking different standards is important.
Global Food Safety Initiative
Mowi’s certification policy also states that all our primary and secondary processing plants must be certified to a food safety standard recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), such as IFS, BRC, SQF, FSSC, ISO 22000, GAA BAP processing standard).
GFSI aims to improve food safety and business efficiency. GFSI’s work on benchmarking and harmonization promotes mutual acceptance of GFSI-recognized certification programs throughout the industry and enables a simplified approach of “once certified, recognized everywhere.” This reduces inefficiencies due to duplication of audits and helps reduce trade barriers. The GFSI Benchmarking process is now the most widely recognized in the food industry worldwide. Benchmarking requirements are based on internationally recognized standards such as ISO and Codex Alimentarius. They represent a shared and widely accepted understanding of what constitutes a robust food safety certification program.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), an independent nonprofit organization that strives to be the world’s leading certification and labeling program for responsibly farmed fish. The ASC’s primary role is to manage the global standards for responsible aquaculture developed by the WWF Aquaculture Dialogues.
The ASC works with all stakeholders involved in aquaculture to:
- Recognize and reward responsible aquaculture through the ASC certification program and seafood label
- Promote the best environmental and social choice when buying seafood
- NorwayContribute to transforming fish markets toward sustainability
Mowi continues to be a leader in ASC certification, with a total of 133 certified farming sites worldwide by the end of 2021. This represents 50% of all our farming sites and accounts for 33% of all ASC-certified Atlantic salmon sites worldwide, confirming that we are the leading producer of ASC-certified farmed salmon.
The previous restriction of the ASC standard to certify farms using smolts sourced from freshwater lakes has been lifted and therefore we are also rolling out ASC certification for our Scottish salmon farms.
We continue our ASC certification efforts to provide ASC-certified salmon to customers who have chosen this certification scheme; all of our MOWI Pure salmon is and will continue to be ASC-certified.
GLOBAL G.A.P.
GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart agricultural insurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with the participation of producers, retailers and other food industry stakeholders. These solutions include a set of standards for safe, socially and environmentally responsible agricultural practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA), applicable to fruits and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, livestock and more.
GLOBALG.A.P. covers the entire production chain from feed to fork, and to have a certified product, all the different parts of the value chain must be GLOBALG.A.P.-certified.
The GLOBALG.A.P. Aquaculture Standard sets strict criteria for:
- Legal compliance
- Food safety
- Employee health, safety and welfare in the workplace
- Animal welfare
- Environmental and ecological care
