The Global Seafood Alliance’s (GSA’s) Seafood Processing Standards (SPS), developed in 2004, are the only seafood-specific processing plant standard in the world. Now, the latest SPS Issue 6.0 has been approved and GSA is seeking processing plants for pilots.

SPS Issue 6.0 was developed to offer a customized, more comprehensive approach for global farm-raised and wild-caught processors that increases audit efficiency and relevancy, while still maintaining the robust assurances for which SPS is known. The standard has been restructured to include a core set of requirements for all plants, with separate modules to accommodate production processes that may not occur at every processing facility. With this new format, processors are assessed to all clauses within the core of SPS, as well as any relevant modules that fall within the scope of the facility’s seafood processing production.

SPS covers all pillars of responsible seafood: social accountability, food safety, environmental responsibility, traceability, and animal welfare, as appropriate. At present, more than 500 processing plants are SPS-certified and the standard is endorsed by marketplace leaders across the globe.

To learn more about getting involved in a pilot for SPS 6.0, reach out to the GSA’s Program Integrity Team by emailing allison.roderick@globalseafood.org. Visit the GSA website to learn more about SPS and to view the standard.