UK SEAFOOD INDUSTRY ALLIANCE ENDORSES LEADING TRACEABILITY STANDARDS

UK Seafood Industry Alliance endorses leading traceability standards. The UK Seafood Industry Alliance (UK SIA) has joined the group of major stakeholders to endorse the groundbreaking new traceability standards released by The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) in March 2020. These standards, officially known as GDST 1.0, will enable interoperability and significantly increased verifiability for all seafood traceability systems by designing specifications to allow for seamless data sharing and defining the key data elements that should accompany seafood products as they move through supply chains.

The UK Seafood Industry Alliance clearly recognizes the value of a common digital language for data to facilitate interoperability and verifiability,” said Mike Short, Secretariat for UK SIA. “This unified approach will not only decrease our efforts and costs to provide the information that our business partners, governments and end-consumers ask for, but will also allow to help ensure the legal origin of seafood.”

As a UK based initiative and a major international voice for secure, affordable, and sustainable fishery products, the UK SIA is a welcomed addition to the GDST stakeholders. UK SIA member companies are major seafood distributors for retail and food services based in the UK, supplying own label and branded seafood to retailers, caterers, and restaurants. With the UK being one of the largest seafood markets in Europe, sourcing and delivering sustainable seafood to consumers is of top priority.

“Traceability and transparency are fundamental to the strategic focus of successful seafood businesses,” said Cameron Moffat, Sustainability Manager for Young’s Seafood, a member company of UK SIA. “The release of the GDST 1.0 Standards represents a significant milestone for the industry, providing a consistent, practical format for the transfer of complex supply chain data.”

Since the launch, UK-based seafood companies are demonstrating leadership amongst industry and quickly beginning implementation of GDST 1.0. Through implementation of the GDST standards, companies will meet their commitments to responsible sourcing while ensuring that future investments in their traceability systems are in step with industry trends and technology developments.

“As a UK business with global sourcing of raw fish we need to have complete confidence in our supply chain to ensure we provide safe, high quality and ethically sourced fish to the UK market and beyond,” said David Jefferies, Technical Director for New England Seafood. “GDST provides the foundation for this to be taken to the next level and we fully support its implementation in the supply chain.”