The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has partnered with Envisible, a company specializing in sustainable sourcing and traceability technology, to digitize GSA’s operations in a multi-year partnership that will leverage supply chain information for Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and Best Seafood Practices (BSP) stakeholders across the globe. This initiative will enable GSA partners and endorsers to visualize non-identifiable data shared from stakeholders throughout certified supply chains.
The GSA-Envisible partnership coincides with a rise in demand for seafood traceability among brands and consumers as well as increased regulatory requirements. These include the Seafood Import Monitoring Program and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Rule 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act for higher-risk food categories such as seafood and leafy greens. As a number of traceability solutions emerge on the market, GSA and Envisible’s work will enable GSA’s marketplace partners and certified producers to share supply chain data irrespective of the traceability system they use in order to enhance and verify compliance with the BAP and BSP certification standards.
“The entire food system is in the midst of a transformation to become more data driven by an order of magnitude relative to how it exists today,” said Jayson Berryhill, co-founder of Envisible. “This transformation is the result of a convergence of greater technological capabilities, the imperative for brands to be more efficient and sustainable, and the desire from consumers to know more about their food. The Global Seafood Alliance is positioning itself to be a leader in this transformation by developing foundational data tools for its partners and endorsers. At Envisible we are proud and honored to be partnering with GSA to make these new innovations possible.”
GSA and Envisible initially announced their partnership during the GSA Stakeholder Update at Seafood Expo North America in Boston. This partnership comes during a time of significant expansion for the Global Seafood Alliance with its recent rebranding, the addition of the BSP certification program and the upcoming GSA consumer marketing campaign.
“Our partnership with Envisible and the digitization of seafood assurances is the next big step in providing greater value to our partners and endorsers by leveraging supply chain information and further strengthening our BAP and BSP certification programs,” said GSA CEO Brian Perkins. “We’re becoming a more data driven organization, and Envisible is helping us get there.”
Over the past two years, GSA and Envisible have engaged in multiple collaborations, along with other GSA partners, including a pilot to demonstrate real-time data sharing as products and their corresponding traceability data traveled from each of the primary stakeholders in BAP four-star certification: hatchery, feed mill, farm and processing plant. GSA and Envisible have also collaborated on other data sharing and innovation projects, including mapping BAP key data elements with those of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability, and a satellite observation program in collaboration with satellite monitoring company Sea Warden.
Development of these new data tools is already underway and throughout 2022 GSA and Envisible will be working closely with GSA endorsers and partners as well as other technology solutions to co-design and pilot these new capabilities.
About Global Seafood Alliance
The Global Seafood Alliance is an international, nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing responsible seafood practices through education, advocacy and third-party assurances. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices and Best Seafood Practices certification programs, GSA has become the leading provider of assurances for seafood globally. The organization’s work addresses the full spectrum of responsibility, from environmental responsibility and social accountability to food safety. Established in 1997 as the Global Aquaculture Alliance, GSA is headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., USA. To learn more, visit www.globalseafood.org.
About Envisible
Envisible is a sustainable sourcing and technology company that works with food producers and buyers worldwide, offering solutions to facilitate fully traceable supply chains and make product journeys more visible. In 2019 Envisible spun off Wholechain, a supply chain traceability solution aligned with GS1 standards and a partner on the Mastercard Provenance blockchain. Wholechain is a former winner of the Fish 2.0 Competition at Stanford for Supply Chain Innovation in 2019, and a winner of the FDA’s Food Traceability Challenge in 2021. Envisible is a member of the UN Global Compact’s Sustainable Ocean Business Action Platform and Partner to the recently launched Fed by Blue initiative.
