About the ASC Sustainability Label

What does the ASC sustainability label on seafood products really mean?

When you buy products with the ASC sustainability label, you are choosing seafood from ASC-certified farms that have been independently assessed against stringent environmental and social requirements. These farms are audited on how they are managing their impact on the environment, fish health, workers and local communities.

What Farms Are Assessed On

ASC-certified farms must meet strict requirements bringing together impact-driven improvements focused on the farm, its fish, people and the planet.

Protecting Ecosystems, Wildlife & Biodiversity

Farms must monitor, measure, and manage their environmental impacts. Siting farms in sensitive or protected areas (like mangroves, peat, swamps, or rivers) is highly restricted with limited exceptions.

• Conservation of water resources: ASC-certified farms must regularly test water quality and demonstrate that specific limit values are not exceeded. This both prevents disease and minimises impacts on the surrounding environment, such as the seabed. Wastewater and sludge treatment systems must meet stringent requirements.
• Conservation of species diversity and protection of wild fish stocks: The ASC Salmon Standard explicitly requires an environmental impact assessment to protect birds, marine mammals, and sensitive habitats; other standards also prohibit any interference with endangered species. All standards set high requirements to minimise fish escapes and thereby protect wild populations.

Managing Fish Health

ASC standards focus on preventing disease rather than relying on treatments.

• Every farm must implement a strict Fish Health Management Plan under veterinarian supervision.
• When medical treatment is necessary, strict controls are in place including:
  • Reduction plans and species-specific limits on the use of antibiotics (banned for ASC-labelled shrimp)
  • Targets for lowering medicinal treatments for parasites (i.e. sea lice) and public reporting and coordination with neighbouring farms to prevent regional outbreaks

Using Resources Efficiently

Farms must monitor and report their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions to continuously improve energy efficiency.

What farmed fish eat matters a lot. ASC-certified farms are required to improve efficiency and reduce waste, including limiting feed loss and nutrient pollution entering surrounding waters, and minimising the use of wild fish as an ingredient for feed.

Since 31 October 2025, ASC-certified farms have been strictly required to use ASC-conforming feed produced by feed mills certified to the ASC Feed Standard. By linking farm requirements directly to feed mill supply chains, this system verifies that marine ingredients are certified and/or from improving fisheries, and that plant ingredients are sourced to avoid deforestation risks, significantly reducing the overall impact on deforestation and overfishing.

Supporting Workers and Communities

Human rights are a core focus for ASC and ASC certification imposes strict requirements based on the core principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

ASC-certified farms are assessed against a broad range of social requirements spanning:

• Fair wages, clear contracts, and safe working conditions
• Prevention of child labour and forced labour
• Grievance and complaint procedures and respect for local communities and Indigenous peoples

What Does ‘Certification’ Mean?

Participation in the ASC programme is voluntary. Farms can choose to be audited against ASC requirements. Audits are conducted by independent certifiers (called Conformity Assessment Bodies or CABs), ensuring impartiality. CABs hire qualified auditors to check that farms comply with ASC standards. Farms operate on a three-year certification cycle, starting with an initial audit followed by two annual surveillance audits to ensure ongoing compliance. Only farms that pass these checks can hold ASC certification, allowing them to use the ASC label on their packaging.

How ASC Certification Works

ASC does not certify farms itself. Instead, the evaluation process relies on independent, third-party certifiers (known as Conformity Assessment Bodies, or CABs). These CABs must be accredited, meaning that internal processes are verified by an independent body.

To conduct the actual audits on-site, accredited CABs hire qualified auditors. Auditors review data, inspect the facilities, and interview workers and local communities.

A farm is automatically ineligible for certification if it has a recent history of fraud, child/forced labour, environmental violations, or selling uncertified products as ASC.

Who Checks the Auditors?

To make sure the entire programme is followed properly and standards are maintained, an independent Integrity Services Provider checks the performance of the CABs themselves through assessments and witness audits. If a CAB or its qualified auditors fail to meet these performance levels, they can be suspended or have their accreditation completely revoked.

• Oversight today: These integrity and accreditation services are currently provided by Assurance Services International (ASI). You will find all accredited CABs and the ASI findings of their performance on the ASI website.
• Oversight in the future: To further align with global best practices, ASC is transitioning its accreditation function to National Accreditation Bodies (ABs) that are signatories to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). ASI will continue to independently deliver our core integrity services.

How audits are conducted

Achieving and maintaining certification
Farms operate on a three-year certification cycle, starting with an initial audit followed by two annual surveillance audits to ensure ongoing compliance. Farms must continue meeting the requirements of the ASC standard through this structured cycle which also includes unannounced and peak season audits, investigations and suspensions if issues are found. This continuous oversight is part of ASC Programme Assurance, assuring the integrity of ASC-certified and ASC-labelled seafood.

If an auditor finds that a farm is falling short of specific requirements, these issues (known as non-conformities) are graded into different levels of severity. This structure is designed to actively drive continuous improvement:

• Immediate Suspension or Failure: For critical violations, such as the detection of banned antibiotics or immediate risks to worker safety, certification is withheld or instantly suspended. The farm cannot progress until the root cause is identified and completely resolved.
• Opportunities for Improvement: For less severe issues, farms are not immediately disqualified. Instead, they are given a strict window to conduct a thorough root-cause analysis and implement an approved corrective action plan.

Commitment to Transparency
Transparency is an integral part of the ASC programme. All upcoming audits are announced 42 days in advance. This creates a public comment period, allowing stakeholders to submit feedback and report any issues directly to the auditors. This feedback is solely managed by the audit team to ensure an objective view of the farm’s operations. All audit findings — even negative decisions — are published openly on the ASC website. Moreover, certification status is public and searchable, including incomplete initial certification; failed audits; certification not awarded, withdrawn, suspended, cancelled or expired.

How is ASC-Certified Seafood Controlled in the Supply Chain?

Seafood from ASC-certified farms must be kept separate from non-certified seafood throughout its processing and transport process. This prevents the mixing of certified and non-certified goods.

Once ASC-certified seafood leaves the ownership of the farms, each subsequent company in the supply chain that owns and handles ASC-certified products must hold a valid ASC Chain of Custody certification. Chain of custody means being able to trace a product every step of the way, from farms to the final consumer package, to make sure it really comes from certified sources and hasn’t been mixed with non‑certified products.

ASC uses the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) Standard, plus the additional ASC CoC Module, to verify the origin of seafood sold as ASC certified.

Founded on Science, Recognised Globally

Launched in 2010, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is an independent, impact-driven NGO founded by the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and WWF Netherlands to mitigate the key environmental and social impacts of aquaculture globally.

Governance and Expertise

ASC is committed to transparency, independence, and stakeholder participation, incorporating diverse voices into our governance structure:

• Board of Trustees: Comprises representatives from academia, NGOs, and the private and public sectors.
• Technical Advisory Group (TAG): Provides technical expertise across diverse aquaculture systems. The TAG is further supported by Technical Working Groups (TWG) and Ad-hoc Advisory Groups (AAG) to guide specific technical developments and minimise industry impacts.
• Funding Integrity: ASC is funded through annual fees collected from Licence Holders in commercial operations and royalties collected on the voluntary use of the ASC label on consumer-facing products. All revenue generated is reinvested directly into development of the standards, assurance, and programme improvements. ASC also applies for grants on specific topics and projects.

Global Benchmarks and Alignments

FAO Alignment: ASC standards and assurance systems are fully aligned with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) and FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture (GSA).

ISEAL Code Compliant: ASC is the only farmed seafood certification programme with standards recognised as Code Compliant by ISEAL, the global authority on sustainability systems best practices.

Global Recognition: ASC is recognised by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) benchmark and referenced within the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) sustainably sourced seafood supply chain guidelines.

Why the ASC Sustainability Label Matters

When you choose ASC-labelled seafood, you are supporting farms that are working to:

• Protect water quality and surrounding ecosystems
• Reduce impacts on wildlife and biodiversity
• Manage the health and welfare of their species
• Improve transparency and accountability
• Support worker welfare and community relations
• Continuously improve their farming practices

The information on this page is based on the ASC Species Standards. In May 2025, ASC launched the ASC Farm Standard which aligns the ASC Species Standards into one global standard, bringing greater consistency to requirements across all species covered by ASC. A transition period is currently in place to ensure farms have the necessary time to prepare for and meet the updated ASC standards. Find out more about the first ASC-certified farm here!