The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit working to end overfishing and safeguard the future of seafood. Their work can be easily recognised by their logo, the Blue Tick. But behind that mark is a rigorous, science-based certification program designed to protect our oceans and the people who depend on them.
What is the vision of the Marine Stewardship Council?
The MSC’s vision is to ensure that “The world’s oceans are teeming with life and seafood supplies are safeguarded for this and future generations. To help make that happen, the MSC has developed two certification standards, one for wild fisheries and another for the businesses that handle seafood through the supply chain.
Fisheries certification
The MSC fisheries standard applies only to wild-capture fisheries and it’s built on three core principles:
- The sustainability of the target stock
- The environmental impact of the fishing method
- The strength and effectiveness of fishery management
For a fishery to earn certification, it must demonstrate that its practices support long-term stock health, protect marine ecosystems, and follow transparent, well-managed systems.
Certification isn’t awarded lightly. It’s based on a detailed assessment process involving independent scientific review, consultation with stakeholders and rigorous third-party auditing. MSC Fisheries Certification is one of the most widely recognised sustainability benchmarks for wild-caught seafood globally.
Supply Chain Certification (Chain of Custody)
Once a fish leaves the water, it enters the supply chain; that’s where the second layer of certification comes in. Chain of Custody (CoC) certification is required if a company that takes legal ownership of certified seafood on its journey to the plate wants to sell the product as MSC Certified. This includes processors, exporters, distributors and foodservice suppliers.
According to the MSC, “Certified products must be identifiable, kept separate and traceable.” The CoC system is designed to stop mislabelling and substitution — and to ensure that if a product carries the blue tick, it can be backed up with documentation at every stage. Chain of Custody certification is required for every legal owner of MSC products. One-step up, one-step down traceability at each link.
CoC is also about protecting trust. When a customer sees a product marked with the Blue Tick, they’re making a choice based on transparency — and Chain of Custody is what makes that trust possible. The Blue Tick gives consumers confidence that the seafood they’re eating comes from a certified fishery. Chain of Custody is the system that makes that possible.
So how does Chain of Custody work?
The Chain of Custody (CoC) system is built around five key steps. Together, they ensure that seafood labelled as certified is exactly that — from the fishery to the plate. For a product to carry the MSC Blue Tick, each of these checkpoints must be met by every business that handles it along the supply chain.
- The seafood must come from a certified fishery.
- It must be clearly identifiable at every stage.
- It must be kept separate from non-certified product.
- Its volumes must be traceable and reconciled.
- The business handling it must have auditable internal systems.
Brett Patience, Bidfood’s National Seafood Development Manager, sees these steps in action every day and knows what it takes to meet the standard. “A product has to begin as a certified fish to begin with,” says Patience. “You can’t get a salmon and somehow transform it into an MSC product by valuing-add to it or processing it. It has to be caught to the MSC standard from day one.”
Once that’s locked in, the next priority is clear labelling. “Bidfood adds an extra step that isn’t mandatory; we only accept products as MSC if they have the logo on the box,” he explains. “That way it’s easily identifiable for our warehouse team and matches the documentation. If it’s not clearly marked, we don’t treat it as certified.”
Separation is critical, too – not just on paper, but in practice. “Every touchpoint that handles certified product has to make sure it’s separated from non-certified, in transport, in storage, everywhere,” says Patience. “That’s part of the audit. If the product isn’t segregated properly, that’s a breach.”
Tracking volume is the next layer. “At a manufacturing level, every yield has to be accounted for,” he says. “If 100 tonnes of prawns are certified and somehow 120 tonnes get sold as certified, that’s a red flag. Volume reconciliations are in place to make sure substitution doesn’t happen.”
Finally, strong internal systems must back it all up. “If a product doesn’t appear on the invoice as MSC or ASC and we receive it into the system as if it is — that’s a non-conformance,” he says. “If that happens more than once, we could temporarily lose our certification until we prove it’s been fixed. That’s how strict it is.”
For Patience, Chain of Custody isn’t just an operational standard — it’s a safeguard. “It’s about protecting the customer,” he says. “But it’s also about protecting the fishery and the broader industry. If someone’s paying for certified seafood, they deserve to know that it’s genuinely what they’re getting.”
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