| Seafood Processing Plant Certification |
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| To be considered for Best Aquaculture Practices certification by Aquaculture Certification Council, Inc., Processing plant and Repacking plant applicants shall complete the following steps. A Reprocessing plant is considered as a Processing Plant. |
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| 1. Review Certification Application Form (18 pages in Microsoft Excel format) and Guidelines for Standards (39 pages in PDF format). The Certification Application Form collects contact information for processing plant facilities and, if applicable, their parent companies, as well as general background data. It also requests information on plant facilities' management practices for the Best Aquaculture Practices standards that comprise the certification program. The Guidelines for Standards outline the value of the standards, guidelines for their implementation and additional resources. If additional explanation is needed, contact the ACC office for additional data. |
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| To be certified, the facility shall meet the evaluation criteria stated in the Application Form guidelines for all the standards and maintain specified production records regarding traceability for at least three months. Due to changes in regulatory requirements and new standards development, future changes to the BAP criteria and standards may be required. |
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| 2. Return completed Application Form to ACC. The applicant shall answer all of the questions under in the application as well as all "Facility Information" at the beginning of the Application Form. Return the completed Application Form to the ACC office. |
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| Upon receipt of the application form, the ACC office will review the information and provide general guidance to help the applicant correct problems or advise the applicant to contact a consultant for help with major problems. If the facility chooses to use a consultant, it is responsible for all consultant fees. |
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| 3. Facility agreement and Invoice sent out to facility. The ACC office will send out the Facility Certification Agreement and the invoice for the application fee (for new facilities) and inspection fee (for new and returning facilities). The Facility Certification agreement contains the terms and conditions of the certification and recertification program and the fee structure for the Processing Plant or Repacking Plant. . |
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| 4. Sign Facility Certification Agreement and pay facility application and evaluation fees. . The applicant shall sign the contract and return it to the ACC office by FAX, email, or mail. Please include all pages. The invoice for the application fees and evaluation fees can be paid through wire transfer or by check. |
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| Application fees for Processing Plants and for Repacking plants are US$500. Evaluation fees for Processing Plants are $5,000 and for Repacking Plants are $5000. |
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| 5. ISO 65 Certification Body (CB). ACC sends the application to the CB after the signed agreement and payment of the evaluation fees are in the office. The evaluation fee covers all costs of the evaluation and no additional funds should be paid to the Certification Body or the auditor for the initial inspection. If a second inspection is needed due to non-conformances, the facility will be invoiced by the ACC for the second inspection. The CB asks the applicant if the company has any conflicts of interest with the selected evaluator. The evaluator then contacts the facility to arrange a date for the evaluation inspection. ACC is responsible for all travel expenses and evaluator fees. The applicant may be responsible for local travel arrangements for the evaluator, if required. The evaluation inspection process for processing plants generally requires approximately two - three days, assuming records, permits and other pertinent documents are current and available. |
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| 6. Complete site evaluation During the site inspection of the processing plant facility, the auditor reviews records, observes procedures and considers human resources. He or she also collects samples of finished product from three lots and forwards the samples to ACC-approved laboratories for testing according to product type, with the applicant responsible for testing costs. Effluent samples are also collected and sent out for testing at the expense of the facility. |
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| The applicant shall allow full access to staff and pertinent information, including production records and export records, and should not hesitate to ask questions to better understand the process. The auditor reports evaluation results to the processing plant representative and ACC within 28 working days following the evaluation inspection. |
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| For the facility to be certified, it shall comply with all (100%) of the critical, major and minor inspection requirements. |
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| Processing plants have up to one year from the date of application to be certified. In some cases, processing plants unable to certify within this period that are working on updates may be granted a limited extension of time to comply with the BAP guidelines. |
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| 7. Pay program certification fee. After a successful evaluation inspection and review, the processing plant shall pay a certification fee based on the amount of finished product exported worldwide in the previous calendar year. Processing plants with annual exports of up to 1,000 metric tons of finished product pay a minimum fee of U.S. $2,000. Processing plants with over 1,000 metric tons of exports add U.S. $2 for each metric ton of annual exports beyond 1,000 to the minimum fee, up to a maximum of U.S. $12,000. For example, a processing plant with 1,500 metric tons of annual exports would pay the U.S. $2,000 minimum plus an additional U.S. $1,000 for the 500 metric tons over 1,000, for a total of U.S. $3,000. |
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| Reprocessing and repacking plants that repack product from other BAP-certified facilities pay a U.S. $1,000 certification fee. |
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| 8. Check ACC Website for company listing. Once the facility is approved for certification and all fees are paid, a unique certification number is assigned to the plant, a certification certificate is issued and the facility is added to the list of certified facilities. Certified facilities may include the "Best Aquaculture Practices" certification mark in advertising and retail packaging as provided in the Facility Certification Agreement and referenced publications. |
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| Unless instructed otherwise by the applicant, facility names and locations are made public on the ACC website. Other information is kept confidential and not shared with or sold to other parties. ACC may draw general statistics from the data for educational purposes, but the anonymity of specific information is maintained. |
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| 9. Maintain records and input traceability data. The certified processing plant shall maintain records for each lot that include data on farm and plant lots, and distribution information, as outlined in the Traceability section of the Guidelines for Standards. A portion of this data shall also be uploaded to an online traceability system that allows each processed lot to be traced back to its pond and inputs of origin. |
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| ACC currently uses a traceability system developed by TraceRegister, Inc. as an integral part of the online certification system. To participate in the traceability system, the processing plant shall pay a basic annual fee. Certified processing plants must actively participate in TraceRegister to be certified. |
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| 10. Recertify each year.BAP processing plant certification remains in effect for one year. For each successive year, plants shall pay an evaluation inspection fee of U.S. $5,000 prior to the inspection and a recertification fee of $2.00 per metric ton of shrimp exported, with a minimum recertification fee of $2,000 and a maximum of $12,000. Processing plants have up to 60 days past the recertification date to complete recertification. |
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