6 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2025 The scope of what can be considered responsible aquaculture has shifted tremendously over the quarter-century that the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has operated Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP). Certification programs like BAP must constantly adapt to account for increasingly complex issues and interventions. No sector has embodied this challenge more in recent years than aquaculture feeds (or aquafeeds), where sustainability drives marketplace decisions and certification is the preferred means of demonstrating responsible ingredient sourcing. BAP has always stood upon a foundation of continual improvement, focused on measured, inclusive progress for aquaculture producers of all scales, sophistications, and geographies wanting to demonstrate best practices. All BAP certification standards – whether they’re designed for farms, feed mills, hatcheries, or seafood processors – are complete, holistic and require that 100 percent of production meets the standard requirements. GSA’s vision is for responsible seafood to address the world’s increasing nutrition needs. To achieve this, we will represent best practices from all corners of the globe and safeguard the investment made by certified producers. Since the organization’s founding (as the Global Aquaculture Alliance in 1998), this philosophy of continual improvement has driven the development of all of our certification programs, as we seek to identify the necessary gaps that could hinder responsible production and sourcing claims. In response to marketplace concerns about the impacts of aquaculture, the initial focus of the BAP program was limited to address concerns regarding food safety and habitat destruction in the emerging shrimp farming industry. As these gaps were addressed, others emerged, and the BAP program eventually evolved into a four-star system, assuring best practices at nearly 4,000 processors, farms, hatcheries, feed mills and processing plants around the world. Responsible aquafeed production has been a tenet of BAP certification for more than 15 years. The first BAP Feed Mill Standard was released in 2010, outlining key priorities related to the social welfare of workers, community engagement, food safety and environmental stewardship. This standard also marked the beginning of BAP’s longstanding journey of engaging with feed mills beyond certification, with a focus on long-term commitment and improvement. At that time, a goal for the standard’s evolution was already set: By 2015, standard holders must prove that 50 percent of their wild-capture fisheries raw materials needed to be from certified sources. This was at a time when aquaculture certification was still in its infancy, allowing us to learn and grow with aquafeed producers collaboratively and incrementally. Additionally, in 2022, BAP added a requirement that 50 percent of all soy and 100 percent of palm oil products needed to be from certified sources. WHY SEAFOOD CERTIFICATION STANDARDS MUST CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE David Dietz Manager of Standards Oversight Global Seafood Alliance LEAD ARTICLE
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