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ASC says new seafood tracing tool is more than 95 per cent accurate

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council said new technology for tracing the origins of seafood, which the independent aquaculture labeling and protocol organization is launching, has an accuracy rate of better than 95 per cent.

“If you want to make claims about being the ‘best’ or ‘sustainable,’ you must be able to verify where and how the seafood was raised,” said Peter Redmond, senior market development manager, ASC North America. “We are encouraged by the opportunity this technology brings to further strengthen our certification program.”

According to ASC the tool is based on trace element fingerprinting (TEF). It will help the organization further reduce seafood fraud and mislabeling, occurrences all too common in both wild-caught and farmed seafood.

ASC establishes protocol on farmed seafood while ensuring sustainable aquaculture. The ASC provides producers with a certification of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

The organization said tests were conducted at several ASC-certified shrimp farms in Southeast Asia. ASC and its partners “were able to correctly identify the farms of origin in all samples and achieved better than 95 per cent accuracy compared to lower accuracy rates for conventional statistical methodologies.”

“While our label is a symbol to consumers that their product comes from a certified responsible farm, we also need to constantly adapt to new technologies,” said Wendy Banta, senior program assurance manager, ASC. “Now, with TEF technology, we are further pushing mislabeling and fraud out of this industry and driving what we call, ‘the new way to seafood.'”