As part of its sustainable seafood procurement policy, WinCo Foods has committed to sourcing three-star and four-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) product, the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) announced in late January.
The U.S. supermarket company has committed to sourcing 100% three-star BAP product by the end of 2016 and 100% four-star BAP product by the end of 2017, meaning that 100% of its farmed seafood would originate from BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills. It’s the highest designation in the BAP third-party certification program.
“We at WinCo Foods are committed to the goal of providing the highest quality sustainability seafood to our customers at the lowest prices possible. Partnering with GAA is a wonderful opportunity for WinCo, as our customers can rest assured they will be getting the best sustainable farm-raised seafood,” said Chris Cabitto, WinCo’s VP of seafood operations.
“GAA is very excited to add WinCo to its ever-growing list of retailers globally that require BAP product as their benchmark. WinCo is taking a very proactive approach to completing this task, and we are proud to help them achieve this goal,” added Peter Redmond, BAP VP of market development. “Four-star BAP product affords the greatest assurance across the supply chain that seafood is produced in a responsible and sustainable manner. BAP is the only third-party certification program capable of making and delivering against this assertion. We feel WinCo has recognized this, and we applaud this exciting announcement.”
WinCo Foods is a privately held, majority employee-owned supermarket chain based in Boise, Idaho, with 105 stores and five distribution centers located in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.
In December, the number of BAP-certified facilities globally surpassed 1,000.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
Source: Global Aquaculture Alliance
