The ‘Tracefish’ project, short for 'Traceability of Fish Products', established a set of international standards to ensure the traceability of seafood products from catcher to retailer. With funding from the European Commission, the Tracefish Concerted Action brought together representatives from fish businesses and research organisations, in the EU and Nordic countries. Seafish led the development of a voluntary electronic standard for traceability of fish products - Tracefish

The project produced three specifications that provide a basis for traceability in the industry:
- an information specification for captured fish distribution chains i.e. what information should be generated and held by the food businesses
- a similar information specification for farmed fish distribution chains
- and a technical specification for the electronic encoding of the data.

Fishermen, processors and others in the distribution chain will enter information on the fish they handle to a common database enabling the progress of fish products through the chain to be traced backwards or forwards.

For an article on the Tracefish philosophy by Fish Technology Manager Wesley Denton click here.

For details of the project and a copy of the standard visit www.tracefish.org