MSC Certification

The Marine Stewardship Council™ (MSC™) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1997, established to address the problem of unsustainable fishing and safeguard seafood supplies for the future.
The MSC certification is the main global seafood certification scheme for sustainable fishing at international level. It is a voluntary certification open to all companies involved in fishing.
The purpose of the certification is to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognizing and rewarding sustainable fishing practices.

The certification is based on two standards, that meet international best practice guidelines for certification:

• the MSC Fisheries Standard, that measures the sustainability of wild-capture fisheries
• the MSC Chain of Custody Standard, that is a traceability and segregation standard applicable to the full supply chain from a certified fishery or farm to final sale.

The Chain of Custody assures consumers and seafood-buyers that MSC labelled seafood comes from a certified sustainable fishery. Each company in the supply chain handling or selling an MSC certified product must have a valid MSC Chain of Custody certificate. The MSC blue label can be only applied to wild fish or seafood from fisheries that have been certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard.

The MSC does not assess a fishery or business, and it does not issue certificates. Assessments are carried out by third party independent organizations accredited by ASI (Accreditation Services International): Vireo is accredited by ASI (ASI-ACC-086) and can provide MSC certificates.