PAS 1550:2017 Exercising due diligence in establishing the legal origin of seafood products & marine ingredients

As a Code of Practice, this PAS takes the form of guidance and recommendations. It incorporates labour issues and considers illegal treatment of crew on fishing vessels to be linked with illegal fishing. One of the aims of this PAS is to help enable decent working conditions to be provided not only on board vessels but at all factories, work stations and during all activities throughout supply chains.

The PAS builds on the BRC Advisory Note for the UK supply chain on how to avoid Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishery products, which was published in February 2015, by including in addition, aspects of traceability as well as social elements. The PAS is aimed at processors and importers and gives recommendations on: the considerations within a due diligence system in order to minimise the risk of IUU seafood in the supply chain; the considerations to minimise the risk of a lack of decent conditions at work in the supply chain; and what traceability systems are used to deliver the ability to verify the claim.

This PAS was developed with the support of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) and WWF. Its development was facilitated by BSI Standards Limited and it was published under licence from The British Standards Institution (BSI). It came into effect on 31 July 2017.

PAS implementation guidance

Following feedback from existing users of the PAS, EJF, Pew and WWF have developed the PAS 1550:2017 Implementation Guide, which aims to support seafood buyers and their supply chain actors to exercise due diligence and assess risks within their own operations and supply chains, thereby enabling them to avoid purchasing, processing or transporting illegally caught seafood.

The Implementation Guide splits recommendations into three categories to help users from different starting points adopt recommendations and, eventually, go beyond them:

• Base practice is intended for small seafood buyers such as hotels and restaurants who are starting their seafood buying journey.
• Implementation of PAS/PAS compliant is intended for larger seafood wholesalers, processors and others who already meet the base practice level.
• Aspirational practice is intended for established seafood processors, wholesalers, retailers and multinational hotel groups that have had several years working in this space.