Seafood Processing Standard

Seafood Processing Standard (SPS) certification assures your stakeholders and customers that your seafood is safe and responsibly sourced. As an approved certification body for the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) SPS, we provide comprehensive audits for seafood processing facilities. SPS certification encompasses a variety of species and processing activities, confirming that your wild-caught fisheries, aquaculture farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills provide seafood that is raised and processed to the highest industry best practices.

Why choose SPS certification audits from SGS?

As an approved SPS Certification Body (CB) we can validate your compliance to the BAP standards. 

We enable you to:

• Gain a comprehensive evaluation of your practices against the SPS standards
• Demonstrate environmental stewardship and sustainable resource management
• Enhance your company's social accountability and community engagement
• Uphold stringent animal health and welfare practices
• Ensure food safety through effective control of residues, contaminants, and HACCP adherence
• Achieve the Best Aquaculture Practices or Best Seafood Practices Certification mark for use on product packaging and promotional materials through a licensing agreement with GSA
• Confirm your commitment to providing responsibly sourced seafood to your customers

The SPS Seafood Processing Standard is also benchmarked against the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). This means on successful completion of the audit you can now receive both SPS certification and GFSI compliance through a single audit process. 

What does the SPS standard cover?

The SPS standard covers aquaculture and wild-caught species, including

• Finfish 
• Crustaceans 
• Mollusks 
• Echinoderms 
• Medusozoans 

The scope of operations covered under the standard includes only processes performed in land-based facilities and operated by the facility.

The four pillars of SPS certification audits

The four pillars of SPS certification audits include:

1. Environmental responsibility
• Sediment and water quality
• Fishmeal and fish oil conservation
• Control of escapes and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
• Predator and wildlife interactions
• Storage and disposal of farm supplies


2. Social accountability
• Property rights and regulatory compliance
• Community relations
• Worker safety
• Employee relations


3. Animal health and welfare
• Health and welfare
• Biosecurity and disease management


4. Food safety
• Control of residues and contaminants
• Harvest and transport
• Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)

The foundation of these pillars is based on a robust traceability system incorporating product identity preservation, mass balance and labeling controls.

Why SGS?

As the world’s leading, testing, inspection and certification company, we bring unparalleled expertise to SPS certification audits. Our approval as an SPS Certification Body (CB) means we not only validate your practices but also offer efficient pathways to dual SPS and GFSI compliance through a single audit process. We also offer fast, efficient examination and testing for all the effluent and seafood samples to BAP criteria through our global network of laboratories.

Discover the pathway to responsible seafood certification with SPS standards. Contact us today for a tailored solution for your operations.