The Marine Stewardship Council announced that Maines Paper & Food Service, Incorporated, the seventh largest broadline distributor in the United States, has earned Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody certification, making it the first broadliner in the U.S. Northeast to achieve this distinction.
Maines supplies fresh and frozen seafood to customers, including Cornell University, which, last week, became the first Ivy League university to receive MSC Chain of Custody certification.
Charles Feldman, Vice President of Corporate Business Development for Maines, said, "Maines is honored to be certified by the Marine Stewardship Council and recognizes the importance of maintaining a sustainable source of seafood and working with manufacturers who participate in environmentally responsible fishing practices."
Kerry Coughlin, MSC Americas Regional Director, said, “We are proud to welcome family-owned Maines into the Marine Stewardship Council program and appreciate the significant role they will play in supplying MSC-certified sustainable seafood to customers large and small throughout the east coast.”
Maines is headquartered in Conklin, New York and serves customers from a dozen major distribution centers that are located in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois and Texas. Maines has been listed in Forbes magazine's Top 300 of America's Largest Private Companies list since 2004. Maines is a family-owned company that was started in 1919 to sell nickel candy to local grocers and has grown into a diversified portfolio of products and services with annual revenues of approximately $3 billion. Maines is a member of the Independent Marketing Alliance (IMA).
The MSC Chain of Custody certification is a comprehensive traceability program that traces seafood from the point of sale back to an MSC certified fishery. It ensures that MSC-labeled products are sourced from a fishery that is MSC-certified, and it protects buyers and the fishery from fraudulent labeling and risks from fisheries carrying products from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. As a result, the sustainability of the seafood product is ensured, the MSC certified fishery of origin receives well-deserved recognition, and incentive is created for other fisheries to commit to environmentally responsible fishing practices.
To obtain MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification, wholesalers and distributors must pass an independent, third party audit that is conducted by an accredited certification body, and it must undergo annual audits to demonstrate it continues to meet the standard. The CoC standard focuses on having an internal traceability system and reliable operational systems in place to ensure that MSC-certified seafood is kept separate from noncertified seafood. Worldwide, more than 1,800 companies have obtained Chain of Custody certification.
Source: The Marine Stewardship Council