Sustainable Seafood Chain of Custody

Eligibility

• Any organization that takes legal ownership with the intent to sell with a certified claim, either business to business or direct to consumer.
• Any organization that takes possession of customer-supplied material to act as a contract processor or repacker.

Key Principles and Requirements

To be CoC-certified your organization must have procedures and record keeping in place where you can demonstrate to an auditor that you’ve:

• Received certified seafood product directly from a certified fishery, farm, or CoC certified supplier.
• Kept certified seafood product separate from non-certified seafood while in your ownership (through storage, processing, packaging and sale/shipping). Basically, ensure that you’ve identified all risks of comingling certified with non-certified product, put controls in place to address those risks, and have records that demonstrate those controls are effective.
• Have records that allow a link from sales of certified product back to your supplier receiving document.

1. Submit application

   Submit an application. SCS prepares a proposal that includes the scope and cost of the audit. Sign and return the proposal to begin the project.

2. Pre-Audit

   Become familiar with the requirements then review your operations, developing additional procedures, training and record keeping as needed to ensure you can demonstrate to an auditor that you have:

   • Received certified seafood product directly from a certified fishery, farm, or CoC certified supplier.
   • Identified all risks of comingling certified with non-certified product, put controls in place to address those risks, and have records that demonstrate those controls are effective.
   • Have records that allow a link from sales of certified product back to your receiving document (i.e. invoice) from supplier.

3. On-site Audit

   An SCS auditor visits your facilities to review your organization's control systems and records from a sample of transactions to verify traceability. The auditor then prepares an audit report.

4. Corrective Actions

   Based on findings in the audit report, SCS issues corrective action requests as applicable. Your organization must respond to any non-conformities raised.

5. Certification Decision

   SCS reviews the audit report as well as evidence of implementation of corrective actions before rendering a final certification decision. Successful applicants are issued a CoC certificate and can sell certified product and promote their certification. SCS can also provide client marketing support.

6. Surveillance Audits

   CoC certification is granted for three years and requires surveillance audits at 12 or 18 month intervals relative to the risk of your operations.