Sustainability & Responsible Practices
- Keeping a record of updated HACCP Plans and sanitation control from all supplying plants, in English and signed by the local QA Team
- Obtaining lot-by-lot certificate issued by the foreign government inspection authority
- Proceed annual in loco plant, boats and farms inspection
- Encourage plants to adopt high standard Food Safety protocols (like GFSI) through third-party audits and certification (BRC, BAP, FSSC, ISO)
- Adopt a strict packaging and labeling protocol and run DNA tests when needed to avoid mislabeling products
- Adopt TraceRegister™ software to keep compliance update record and database of all plants suppliers
- Encourage suppliers to adopt also Food Defense protocols to comply with section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic/Bioterrorism Act
The great majority of seafood sourced by NETUNO USA is from open-based stocks in developing countries. Sustainable management and conservation must be done over the stock and the habitats to assure supply for future generations. To avoid overfishing NETUNO encourages fishermen, NGOs, local governments, and other fishery stakeholders to pursue MSC Sustainable Fishery Certification or to start FIPs (Fishery Improvement Projects).
Fishery Improvement Projects
We work with suppliers to develop new products and their marketing strategies. This includes innovations in fishing and farming techniques, processing, packaging, and logistics. It can also include providing funds, technology, and technical expertise to help meet quality and sustainability standards. We support 7 FIPs worldwide: Snapper in Brazil, Grouper & Snapper in Indonesia, Wahoo, Cobia, & Mahi in Indonesia, Grouper in Mexico, Octopus in Mexico, Lobster in Honduras, Squid in China. We are also a member of Importer Supplier Roundtables organized by NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.
What are MSC Certifications & FIPS?
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global nonprofit organization. The MSC created the most common and comprehensive standard to define Sustainable Fisheries. A fishery can voluntarily submit to evaluation under the MSC standard by a 3rd party certification body (also known as CABs). CABs are also subjected to a 3rd party accreditation by ASI (Assurance Services International).
Currently there are nearly 470 fisheries in 53 different countries that achieved the MSC Certified Sustainable Label. More than 35,000 products carry the MSC logo in 112 different countries representing more than 900,000 tons of labeled product. Despite growing fast when compared with total landings (near 80 million tons), MSC labeled products barely reaches 1% off global fishery production.
If an assessed fishery fails in one or more of the 28 performance indicators of MSC standard, a smart step for them is to start a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) to address the problem(s) found by the auditor assessment team. Companies, governments, NGOs, Unions and fishermen should joint effort to change any unsustainable practices, whether over the stock, or the management and enforcement policies in place.
Fisheryprogress.org is a comprehensive website portal where anyone can find more information about FIPs all over the world and track their improvement progress.
Learn more about the MSC standards: https://www.msc.org/
Know more about what FIPs are doing worldwide: https://fisheryprogress.org
Our Commitment
If we are to secure the future of global fisheries, the industry needs to make a collective commitment to reform, and that starts with shifting our buying focus to larger, reproductive-age fish that have already contributed to the overall population.
“Nearly half of the species we carry are certified sustainable or part of a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP). Our ultimate goal is to have 90% of our products certified or in a FIP by 2025.”
Sustainability, Compliance, QA Manager, kingofbranzino USA