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Getting certified: feed mills
When your feed mill gets ASC certified, you’re helping to meet the growing global demand for more responsible feed. Start your journey to certification today.
Benefits of ASC certification for your feed mill
Ensure market access
Demonstrate you care
Meet global demand
Drive positive change
Feed Mills: How to get ASC certified
Feed Mills: How to get ASC certified
It’s time to Feed Responsibly: Get certified!
The ASC Feed Standard is the first aquaculture standard to evaluate all feed ingredients and address their impacts during production and manufacturing.
We apply a third-party certification system, meaning that certification of your feed mill is done by an independent Conformity Assessment Body (CABs). Auditors visit your feed mill to verify if it complies with the requirements of the ASC Feed Standard and is eligible for certification.
Become familiar with the ASC Feed Standard, the ASC Feed Certification Requirements for Unit of Certification (RUoC) and the ASC Feed Interpretation Manual. Make any changes necessary to ensure your feed mill meets the requirements.
Contact ASC accredited CABs for quotes and to understand how they would work with you. We recommend you reach out to more than one CAB before deciding which one to work with. Once you have chosen, they will inform ASC about the planned audit, and we will announce it.
Your CAB helps you prepare for the audit. They will request a selection of records to conduct a remote desk review of your feed mill, which makes for a more efficient on-site audit. Before your on-site audit, you will need to ensure that your feed mill meets all relevant ASC requirements.
The CAB conducts the audit of your site(s), processes the findings and sends a draft audit report to ASC. If any non-conformities are found, corrective action must be taken in a specific timeframe for certification to proceed.
Within 42 days of the audit (or correction of any non-conformities), the CAB processes their findings and sends a draft report to ASC. The draft report is published on your ASC ‘Find a Feed Mill’ web page to allow stakeholders to comment.
After all comments are analysed, the CAB decides if your feed mill complies with the requirements and the final audit report is uploaded to your ASC ‘Find a Feed Mill’ web page. If it meets the requirements, your feed mill is certified, and your ASC certificate is published.
Once certified, you will sign a licence agreement with ASC based on the volumes of ASC compliant feed sold by your company. When your licence agreement is signed, you can begin marketing and selling your feed as ASC compliant.
ASC certified farms have until October 2025 to transition to ASC compliant feed produced under the ASC Feed Standard to continue meeting the ASC Farm Standards.
Quick and easy online access to all relevant programme documentation surrounding our ASC Feed Certification Programme. Are you ready to Feed Responsibly?
Hear how companies are adopting the ASC Feed Standard
More About CABs
Certification companies, also referred to as Conformity Assessment Bodies (CABs), are independent of ASC.
They must demonstrate to another independent organisation, Assurance Services International (ASI), that they have the skills to undertake assessments of our standards. Auditors are also required to participate in standard specific training, including a mandatory exam that they must pass.
Following accreditation, the CAB is monitored by ASI to ensure they continue to operate in line with our Certification and Accreditation Requirements (CAR).
To start your certification journey, please compare independent certifiers (CABs) on the ASI website.
How to search for accredited CABs on ASI’s website
- Search under ‘Programme – ASC’ and ‘Technical Scope – ASC Feed’ to find a list of ASC accredited CABs.
- Once the CAB has been accredited, navigation on the ASI website will be clearer.
Is your operation Single-Site or Multi-Site?
There are two types of ASC certification depending on the kind of feed mill you operate.
You are a single-site feed mill if…
- Your operation is formed by one production site.
- Your feed mill will be the owner of the ASC compliant feed produced at the site.
- Your feed mill is the only entity authorised to sell ASC compliant product.
You are a multi-site feed mill if…
- Your operation has more than one production site to be included in the audit scope.
- There is an identified central function that ensures compliance against ASC requirements at all sites included.
- You, as the client applying for ASC certification, own or subcontract all the sites.
- All the sites are located within the same country.
There are benefits of multi-site certification:
- You can have a coordinated approach to scheduling and undergoing the audit process of multiple sites.
- The audit load is reduced compared to separate single-site certifications for each site.
Your feed mill is not eligible for ASC certification if…
- It has failed an ASC certification audit within the past 12 months
- It has had an ASC certificate withdrawn in the past 12 months
- It has been successfully prosecuted in the past 24 months for either:
- Carrying out fraudulent activities confirmed by the statutory authority
- Use or involvement of child labour, slavery, human trafficking or forced labour
Is your production model Segregation or Mass Balance?
There are two production models a feed mill can use to produce ASC compliant feed—the Segregation Production Model or the Mass Balance Production Model. You can choose to use one or both production models.
Mass Balance Production Model
Requirements:
- Have an ingredient approval process.
- Have an ingredient accounting system (IAS) in place to ensure volumes of incoming eligible ingredients cover the volumes of outgoing feed produced under the mass balance production model.
- Carry out mass balance calculation annually.
- No minimum percentage of eligible ingredients required.
- Can claim to be ASC compliant under a licence agreement, however, cannot use the ASC label on packaging/documentation.
Segregation Production Model
Requirements:
- Have an ingredient approval process.
- Physical Identification and segregation of eligible ingredients from non-eligible ingredients throughout all stages of production.
- Documented traceability system in place.
- Can use the ASC labels on packaging/documentation
Request your Licence
Feed producing companies who have an ASC feed certificate must sign a feed licence agreement. This can be completed anytime during the certification process or immediately after gaining certification.
Once you’ve signed a feed licence agreement, you are liable to pay fees annually (January-December).
Our ASC Label/Claim User Guide for ASC certified feed mills provides further details on the licence fee, as well as guidance for using the ASC label and/or ASC claims for compliant feed products and promotional or other materials.
Reporting Your Data
ASC uses a digital platform called MyASC for all certified entities to report requested certification data, register products and get your product labels approved. Once a feed mill has signed a contract with a CAB, feed mills can request a new user login by sending an email to [email protected]
Further information on using MyASC can be found in the MyASC user-guide for feed mills. All reporting templates can be found below.
During the ASC certification process, potential and current certificate holders submit data as evidence of conformance with ASC requirements and for the purpose of transparency under the ASC certification programme. ASC manages and utilises these non-personal data on social and environmental performance for monitoring and evaluation and review and revision of our certification and assurance programmes.
ASC adheres to strict processes in the privacy (ASC Privacy Policy) and protection (ASC GDPR Data Protection Policy) of personal data. ASC may share non-personal data in aggregate for research purposes; personal data of any kind are never shared.
Training
Formal training modules are under development. Some of these modules will be mandatory for ASC certified feed mill staff or other persons undertaking due diligence and internal audits, as per the competency requirements described in Annex C of the Feed Requirements for Unit of Certification (RUoC).
There are many details to consider when starting your journey towards ASC certification. We are here to support you. Please reach out to [email protected] with any technical queries or translation requests. The best time to reach out to us is before you hire a CAB. For any training queries, please contact [email protected]
Feed Standard update v1.1
ASC is updating its Feed Standard due to the planned development of ASC Certification and Accreditation Requirements (CAR) 3.0 in which the current Feed CAR and Requirements for the Unit of Certification (RUoC) documents will be combined and will contain assurance requirements for both Feed and Farm programmes.
Proposed Feed Standard changes will align feed to farm reporting data with the new Farm Standard requirements and align deforestation/conversion cutoff dates with legislation requirements.
Tools
ASC Feed Standard
ASC Programme Centre
Find A Feed Mill
ASC Vocabulary Portal
Documents
Normative documents for feed mills:
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Japanese
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Spanish
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01-Thai
- ASC Feed Standard v1.01 – Indonesian
- ASC-Feed-Standard_v1.01 Vietnamese
- ASC Feed – Standard V 1.01 Chinese
- ASC Feed – Standard V 1.01 – Korean
- ASC FEED CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIT OF CERTIFICATION (RUOC) V1.0.1
Please click here to access the archive of previous versions of the ASC Standards documents.
Supporting documents for feed mills:
- ASC Feed Interpretation Manual v1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Country Risk Score Card V1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Country Risk Score Cards Methodology and Rationale V1.0
- ASC Feed Standard Assessment Criteria Scoring Template – Feed Standard schemes
- ASC Feed Standard List of Accepted Certification Schemes
- ASC Feed Standard Implementation Workshop Presentation
- ASC Feed Standard Implementation Workshop Video
Reporting templates for feed mills:
- Water Consumption Report v1.2
- Waste Disposal Report V1.0
- Effluent Report V1.0
- Energy Consumption Report V1.1
- GHG Emissions Report V1.1
- Due Diligence Pathways and Low Risk Plant Ingredients Report V1.0
- Sectoral Fishery Assessment/Ingredient Manufacturer Assessment Summary Report V1.0
- Volume of Product Sold – Mass Balance and Segregation Report Template V1.0
- Volume of Marine Ingredients and MSL Report V1.0
If you cannot find a document listed, please consult ASC’s Controlled Document Master List.