Get your seafood company MSC certified

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) program is the world’s most recognized seafood certification program. MSC certification helps your company meet a growing global demand for sustainable seafood, strengthens your reputation, and offers new business opportunities.

Demand for sustainably caught seafood is increasing worldwide

MSC certification and our ecolabel provide assurance to consumers that the seafood you provide comes from a certified sustainable source and prevents substitution and mislabeling of fish and seafood.

Selling and promoting MSC certified seafood also supports fishing communities working hard to fish sustainably.

Our Standard provides assurance that all seafood sold with the blue MSC label comes from a fishery that has been certified as sustainable. To sell seafood with the MSC blue fish label, companies in the supply chain must be certified to this standard and follow the requirements set out by the MSC.

We regularly monitor the MSC certified supply chain, carrying out tracebacks and DNA testing, to ensure the integrity of MSC labelled products.

Our Chain of Custody Standard is also used by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to ensure the integrity of farmed fish (aquaculture) products sold with the green ASC label.

Why get certified?

By getting Chain of Custody (CoC) certification, you will be able to meet the growing global demand for sustainable seafood, and you’ll be contributing to a healthy ocean by supporting those who have committed to fishing sustainably.

Supply Chain Certification Guide

Find out how to get certified. This guide will help you determine which version of the CoC Standard applies to your business, as well as what to expect during the assessment process.

CoC Standard documents

Get the MSC Chain of Custody Standard documents.

Wondering if your business needs CoC certification?

Companies that need CoC

Any seafood sold with the blue fish MSC label needs to be traceable from a certified fishery to the end consumer. For this to work, every company along the supply chain needs to be certified to the MSC Chain of Custody Standard. The Standard ensures an unbroken chain where certified seafood is identifiable, segregated and traceable.

If your company takes ownership of MSC certified seafood products and wants to sell them as certified, you need Chain of Custody certification.

If your company wants to sell certified seafood to consumers, you will also need to apply to use the MSC label.

Companies that don’t need CoC

There are some exceptions; a business does not require MSC Chain of Custody certification if it:

Buys pre-packed certified products that will be sold to the end consumer without being opened, re-packed, or re-labelled (consumer-ready tamper-proof products)
Buys certified products but does not wish to sell them as MSC certified. In this case the chain is broken, and your customers may not make any claim about the product being MSC certified.