GlobalG.A.P., a leading standard provider for Good Agricultural Practices, hosted an event at this year’s Seafood Expo Global/Seafood Processing Global to discuss its new consumer label for fish and seafood from certified aquaculture.
The label was designed with members of trade, industry and aquaculture in mind and is accompanied by a new online service, the organization shared with the press on 27 April. GlobalG.A.P. customers can implement the consumer label, which has been optimized to be easily recognizable and concise, on their product packaging.
GlobalG.A.P. Numbers, or GGNs, will come to signify certified products from Good Aquaculture Practice in the future. The numbers already serve to identify farms participating in the certification scheme by GlobalG.A.P., and the GGN label together with the new online portal – available for use starting in May 2016 – will help consumers obtain specific information on individual farms and products.
Ultimately, GlobalG.A.P. intends for the GGN to “become the key for transparent communication from consumers to farms.”
“The GGN will be the baseline for food safety across the entire food and aquaculture segment in the retail scope,” said Kristian Moeller, CEO of GlobalG.A.P. Germany.
The upcoming online portal will allow customers to search for farms using the GGN label printed on products and read about their stories. The farm search will also be made available for other certification standards; Friends of the Sea has already decided to cooperate and collaborate.
“We would not want to compete with any sustainability label on the front of the pack to make this a confusion of nice colored labels,” said Moeller. “It is just the placeholder, and for stories, even for farms, that will say ‘I am on the way to do maybe organic, I am on the way to add this, but I stand with responsible farming, with food safety, with good aquaculture practices.”
As of now, the GGN consumer label is based upon the GlobalG.A.P. Standard Version 5. The standard covers extensive requirements for food safety, animal welfare, occupational safety and environmental protection, said the organization. Thirty different species of fish and seafood from aquaculture in 28 countries (as of 31 March 2016) are currently certified under the standard.
