Control Union Peru Becomes BAP’s Sixth Accredited Certification Body
Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) has added Control Union Peru (CUP) to its team of independent, third-party certification bodies (CBs), making it the sixth CB accredited to audit and certify aquaculture facilities against the BAP standards, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced in late July.
“We are pleased to have Control Union Peru join our program as an experienced certification body. CUP operates on a global scale and are starting strong with 13 auditors already capable of auditing against all BAP standards,” said Ali Blais, BAP operations manager.
“To date, Control Union Peru has been a real pleasure to work with, and I look forward to establishing and maintaining a long-term partnership with them,” added Brittany Stevens, BAP certification body manager.
To be recognized by BAP, CBs must be accredited under ISO/IEC Guide 17065 by an International Accreditation Forum-member accreditation body and a Multilateral Recognition Arrangements signatory to another internationally recognized scheme. Further, auditors must be trained and recognized by the BAP program and its qualified trainers to audit an aquaculture facility against the rigorous BAP certification standards. The next BAP auditor training course is in Bali, Indonesia, from Oct. 21 to 27, 2018.
Currently, there are six CBs accredited to audit and certify aquaculture facilities against the BAP standards: Acoura, Bureau Veritas, Global Trust/SAI Global, NSF International, SGS and Control Union Peru. Collectively, these six CBs have 149 auditors qualified to audit against the BAP standards.
Control Union performs auditing and certification activities in a number of industries, including food, feed, forestry, biomass, bioenergy and textiles. The company, which is based in the Netherlands and is part of Peterson Control Union Group B.V., has auditors in more than 70 countries. It was founded in 1997.
The need to train and recognize more auditors against the BAP certification standards has grown with the BAP program. Through the first half of 2018, there were 2,079 BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills in 34 countries and six continents, which is a 197% increase from the 700 certified facilities at the end of 2015.
BAP is the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with aquaculture standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal health and welfare and traceability. It’s also the only program to cover the entire aquaculture production chain — processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.
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.
