In order to maintain the credibility and relevancy of its standard, the IFFO RS Governance Board has ratified a proposal for ‘Version 2.0’ of the IFFO RS Responsible Supply Standard.

The IFFO RS certification process includes two key components: the fishery assessment and the factory assessment. The development of Version 2.0 includes a thorough review of both, and to start this key next step, IFFO RS Ltd. has produced a draft of the revised fishery assessment criteria and process together with a proposal for new fishery clauses. This document will be open for Public Consultation via the IFFO RS website for a period of 30 days beginning from 8th August 2016.

A public consultation template for the fishery components is available for stakeholders and other interested parties to provide feedback.

Many of the proposed changes for Version 2.0 of the fishery assessment process aim to improve the Standard’s ability to tackle fisheries of multiple species and fisheries where less information is available. It is hoped that Version 2.0 will promote more responsible management in such fisheries and ultimately further reduce the environmental impact of the fishmeal and fish oil manufacturing process.

The Global Standard for Responsible Supply (IFFO RS) is a business-to-business certification program that enables a compliant factory to demonstrate that it responsibly sources its raw material from well-managed fisheries and responsibly converts that into pure and safe products. To be certified, fishmeal and fish oil factories must demonstrate sourcing from well managed fisheries and safe and traceable production. Assessments are conducted by an independent certification body and in just over two years, IFFO RS has successfully attracted over 112 certified factories, spread across nine countries.