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Get ASC Certified: Feed Mills
Meet evolving retailer sourcing requirements, become the preferred supplier for ASC certified farms and drive positive change across the aquafeed industry.
Why feed mills choose ASC
Supply Chain Needs
Meet evolving retailer sourcing requirements
Market Access
Deliver the feed ASC certified farms need
Better Traceability
Provide transparency to your supply chain
Quality Assurance
Demonstrate commitment to stringent production standards
Drive Positive Change
Improve supply chain accountability and industry connectivity
October 31 2025: ASC certified farms will be required to use conforming feed from ASC certified feed mills.
The ASC Feed Standard V1.1 has been released, (effective and mandatory November 1 2025) aligning feed to farm reporting data with ASC Farm Standard requirements and deforestation/ conversion cutoff dates with legislation requirements.
Online access to all relevant ASC Feed Certification Programme documentation.
Get Certified!
Feed mills are certified against the ASC Feed Standard by independent Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs). Auditors visit feed mills to verify they are eligible for certification through compliance with ASC Feed Standard requirements. It’s the first standard to holistically evaluate all feed ingredients and address their impacts.
Familiarise yourself with the ASC Feed Standard, the Certification and Accreditation Requirements (CAR) and the ASC Feed Interpretation Manual.
Contact ASC accredited CABs to get more information and quotes. We strongly recommend asking more than one certifier to quote.
Once you have chosen a certifier, they will inform ASC and the accreditation body ASI about the planned audit. This needs to happen at least 42 calendar days before the audit.
ASC publishes your planned audit date on the Find a Feed Mill page.
Your CAB helps you prepare for the audit. They will request a selection of records to conduct a remote desk review, which will make the on-site audit more efficient. Before the on-site audit, you need to ensure your feed mill meets all relevant requirements.
The CAB conducts the audit of your site(s), processes the findings and sends a draft audit report to ASC. If any non-conformities are found, corrective action must be taken in a specific timeframe for certification to proceed.
Within 42 days of the audit (or correction of any non-conformities), the CAB processes their findings and sends a draft report to ASC. The draft report is published on your ASC ‘Find a Feed Mill’ web page to allow stakeholders to comment.
The CAB makes the certification decision, uploads the final audit report and – if the decision is positive – your certificate to the ASC database. We publish all documents online.
Once certified, you will sign a licence agreement with ASC based on the volumes of ASC compliant feed sold by your company. When your licence agreement is signed, you can begin marketing and selling your feed as ASC compliant.
Spotlight on Marine Ingredients in the ASC Feed Standard
More About CABs
Certification companies, also referred to as Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), are independent of ASC.
They must demonstrate to another independent organisation, Assurance Services International (ASI), that they have the skills to undertake assessments of our standards. Auditors are also required to participate in standard specific training, including a mandatory exam that they must pass.
Following accreditation, the CAB is monitored by ASI to ensure they continue to operate in line with our Certification and Accreditation Requirements (CAR).
To start your certification journey, please compare independent certifiers (CABs) on the ASI website.
How to search for accredited CABs on ASI’s website
- Search under ‘Programme – ASC’ and ‘Technical Scope – ASC Feed’ to find a list of ASC accredited CABs.
- Once the CAB has been accredited, navigation on the ASI website will be clearer.
Is your operation Single-Site or Multi-Site?
There are two types of ASC certification depending on the kind of feed mill you operate.
You are a single-site feed mill if…
- Your operation is formed by one production site.
- Your feed mill will be the owner of the ASC compliant feed produced at the site.
- Your feed mill is the only entity authorised to sell ASC compliant product.
You are a multi-site feed mill if…
- Your operation has more than one production site to be included in the audit scope.
- There is an identified central function that ensures compliance against ASC requirements at all sites included.
- You, as the client applying for ASC certification, own or subcontract all the sites.
- All the sites are located within the same country.
There are benefits of multi-site certification:
- You can have a coordinated approach to scheduling and undergoing the audit process of multiple sites.
- The audit load is reduced compared to separate single-site certifications for each site.
Your feed mill is not eligible for ASC certification if…
- It has failed an ASC certification audit within the past 12 months
- It has had an ASC certificate withdrawn in the past 12 months
- It has been successfully prosecuted in the past 24 months for either:
- Carrying out fraudulent activities confirmed by the statutory authority
- Use or involvement of child labour, slavery, human trafficking or forced labour
Is your production model Mass Balance?
Requirements:
- Have an ingredient approval process.
- Have an ingredient accounting system (IAS) in place to ensure volumes of incoming eligible ingredients cover the volumes of outgoing feed produced under the mass balance production model.
- Carry out mass balance calculation annually.
- No minimum percentage of eligible ingredients required.
- Can claim to be ASC compliant under a licence agreement, however, cannot use the ASC label on packaging/documentation.
Is your production model Segregation?
Requirements:
- Have an ingredient approval process.
- Physical Identification and segregation of eligible ingredients from non-eligible ingredients throughout all stages of production.
- Documented traceability system in place.
- Can use the ASC labels on packaging/documentation
Request your Licence
Feed producing companies who have an ASC feed certificate must sign a feed licence agreement. This can be completed anytime during the certification process or immediately after gaining certification.
Once you’ve signed a feed licence agreement, you are liable to pay fees annually (January-December).
Our ASC Label/Claim User Guide for ASC certified feed mills provides further details on the licence fee, as well as guidance for using the ASC label and/or ASC claims for compliant feed products and promotional or other materials.
Reporting Your Data
ASC uses a digital platform called MyASC for all certified entities to report requested certification data, register products and get your product labels approved. Once a feed mill has signed a contract with a CAB, feed mills can request a new user login by sending an email to myasc@asc-aqua.org
Further information on using MyASC can be found in the MyASC user-guide for feed mills. All reporting templates can be found below.
During the ASC certification process, potential and current certificate holders submit data as evidence of conformance with ASC requirements and for the purpose of transparency under the ASC certification programme. ASC manages and utilises these non-personal data on social and environmental performance for monitoring and evaluation and review and revision of our certification and assurance programmes.
ASC adheres to strict processes in the privacy (ASC Privacy Policy) and protection (ASC GDPR Data Protection Policy) of personal data. ASC may share non-personal data in aggregate for research purposes; personal data of any kind are never shared.
Training
Formal training modules are under development. Some of these modules will be mandatory for ASC certified feed mill staff or other persons undertaking due diligence and internal audits.
For any training queries, please contact training@asc-aqua.org
Documents
Normative documents for feed mills:
ASC Feed Standard v1.1
ASC Feed Standard v1.01
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Japanese
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Spanish
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01-Thai
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Indonesian
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01 Vietnamese
- ASC Feed – Standard V 1.01 Chinese
- ASC Feed – Standard V 1.01 – Korean
- ASC FEED CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIT OF CERTIFICATION (RUOC) V1.0.1
Please click here to access the archive of previous versions of the ASC Standards documents.
Supporting documents for feed mills:
- ASC Feed Interpretation Manual v1.1
- ASC Feed Interpretation Manual v1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Country Risk Score Card V1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Country Risk Score Cards Methodology and Rationale V1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Assessment Criteria Scoring Template – Feed Standard schemes
- ASC Feed Standard List of Accepted Certification Schemes
- ASC Feed Standard Implementation Workshop Presentation
- ASC Feed Standard Implementation Workshop Video
Reporting templates for feed mills:
- Water Consumption Report v1.2
- Waste Disposal Report V1.0
- Effluent Report V1.0
- Energy Consumption Report V1.1
- GHG Emissions Report V1.1
- Due Diligence Pathways and Low Risk Plant Ingredients Report V1.0
- Sectoral Fishery Assessment/Ingredient Manufacturer Assessment Summary Report V1.0
- Volume of Product Sold – Mass Balance and Segregation Report Template V1.0
- Volume of Marine Ingredients and MSL Report V1.0
If you cannot find a document listed, please consult ASC’s Controlled Document Master List.
You might be interested in…
Find a Feed Mill
ASC Programme Centre
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