ASC
SEAFOOD
CONFIDENCE HIGH · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
The ASC Farm Standard v1.0, which consolidated twelve species standards in May 2025, is one of the broadest single-site standards in food. It reaches environment, human rights, and animal welfare in the same document, and it is unusual in requiring farms to calculate GHG emissions including the feed footprint and to publicly report antibiotic and parasiticide use. Chain of custody for the fish itself is segregated, so a labelled fillet came from a certified farm. The weakness is where the numbers sit rather than whether criteria exist. WildFish and allied groups document that sea lice thresholds rose sharply in 2021, permitted chemical treatments rose in 2019, the antibiotic cap has been unchanged since 2012, and the forage fish dependency ratios have not moved since 2017. The commonly missed point is the feed: the ASC Feed Standard explicitly allows a mass balance production model, so a certified feed mill's output can blend conforming and non-conforming ingredients. Segregated fish does not mean segregated feed.
What it covers
- farmed seafood production site assessed against four principles: legal and management, environment, human rights, animal health and welfare
- escape prevention with annual numeric escape limits and mandatory reporting of mass escapes
- benthic and water quality limits, nitrogen and phosphorus control, freshwater abstraction caps
- on-farm energy and greenhouse gas calculation covering feed and farm operations, plus a GHG management plan
- labour criteria including forced and child labour bans, freedom of association, written contracts, living-wage benchmarking and a wage improvement plan
- animal welfare including pre-slaughter stunning with at least 95 percent immediate insensibility, and a ban on growth hormones
- veterinary-prescribed treatment only, public reporting of antibiotic and parasiticide use, ban on WHO critically important antimicrobials
- area-based collective sea lice management with a 21-day reduction requirement when thresholds are exceeded
- physical segregation of the finished seafood through the joint ASC/MSC chain of custody
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- the ASC Feed Standard permits a mass balance production model, so certified feed may be produced with a mix of conforming and non-conforming ingredients and the fish a shopper buys was not necessarily fed only certified feed
- feed criteria apply only to ingredients above 1 percent of annual ingredient weight, and feed additives, premixes, vitamins, minerals and colourants are excluded by default
- no cap on the total quantity of wild fish used in feed beyond forage fish dependency ratios that have not moved since 2017
- no absolute greenhouse gas reduction target; the requirement is to calculate and to hold a plan
- no requirement to use closed-containment or land-based systems; open net-pen farming remains eligible
- antibiotic treatments per production cycle are capped by a limit set in the 2012 Salmon Standard and carried forward
- exceptions permit certified salmon farms to sit inside high-value conservation and marine protected areas
- nothing about packaging, retail transport, or the carbon footprint of the finished pack
The scheme
| Issued by | Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Utrecht, Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | Global |
| Audit and renewal | Three-year certificate with annual surveillance audits. Chain of custody surveillance at 12 or 18 month intervals depending on risk. |
| Cost | Not published. Audit cost is quoted by the conformity assessment body and scales with production volume, site count and the extent of improvements needed. ASC charges a separate logo licence fee for consumer-facing use of the mark. |
What we read
ASC Farm Standard v1.0 (effective May 2025; v1.0.1 August 2025); ASC Feed Standard v1.2 (issued 19 December 2025, effective 2 February 2026); ASC Farm and Feed Certification and Accreditation Requirements v1.0 (May 2025); ASC Salmon and Cod Standard v1.5 (October 2025) remains operational until 30 April 2027
- what_it_covers (four principles, escapes, GHG, welfare, sea lice, wages) — Farms must calculate their energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from both feed and farm operations and maintain a GHG management plan.
- what_it_covers (slaughter stunning) — Farms must ensure fish are stunned before slaughter with at least 95% losing consciousness immediately.
- what_it_omits (feed mass balance permitted) — Each certificate specifies the scope (for example, ASC Feed Standard) and Production Model type (segregation or mass balance) of the certified UoC.
- what_it_omits (1 percent ingredient threshold, additives excluded) — covering ingredients representing >1% of total annual ingredient weight received
- what_it_omits, yko_assessment (sea lice, chemicals, antibiotics, FFDR, protected areas) — Six antibiotics treatments per cycle are allowed, which is unchanged since the first Salmon Standard was published in 2012.
- yko_assessment (forage fish dependency ratios) — 1.2 kg wild fish (fish meal) and 2.52 kg (fish oil) to produce 1 kg of farmed fish
- enforcement_score (published suspensions and audit reports) — Farm Certifications Suspended and Withdrawn Following Escapes
- enforcement_score (all audit reports including failed audits uploaded) — The CAB shall upload all audit reports, including unannounced audit reports and audits classified as failed audits
- renewal_period — ASC Farm and Chain of Custody certifications are granted for a three-year period, with annual surveillance audits
- independence_score (ASI accreditation) — ASI provides assurance services to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
- what_it_covers, standard_version_read (Farm Standard replaces species standards) — ASC Farm Standard v1.0.1
What we could not establish
Independence sits between the 4 and 5 anchors: certification bodies are ASI-accredited and the ASC Certification and Accreditation Requirements reference unannounced audits, but the CAB is still selected and paid by the farm and there is no government regulator behind the mark. Scored 4. Could not establish the proportion of ASC-certified feed sold under mass balance versus segregation, which is the figure that would most sharpen the feed omission. Did not read the full ASC Feed Standard Appendix 14 on production models, only the programme centre summary. Fee ranges are not published by ASC.
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.