Maritime seafood facilities achieve certification

Blacks Harbour, N.B. – The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has certified three seafood processing facilities.

The three facilities fall under the True North Salmon Company, the sales and marketing division of Cooke Aquaculture Inc. of New Brunswick.

The BRC has certified the sites for food quality and safety.

The facilities include:

• the True North Salmon whole fish processing facility in Blacks Harbour, N.B.;
• a processing facility in St. George, N.B. that produces fresh fillets, portions and tray packed products; and
• the Atlantic Fish Specialties facility in Charlottetown, P.E.I. that produces cold and hot smoked salmon and trout.

The BRC, which is a global leader in product safety and quality certification, had conducted an extensive audit process.

Glenn Cooke, Cooke Aquaculture’s CEO, says the certification is a big win.

“This is great for us as a company but the big winners here are the people who eat our fish and the retailers and chefs who sell it,” he says.

The BRC publishes a set of standards that meets or exceeds all the requirements set forth by the Global Food Safety Initiative. The BRC Global Standard is a leading product safety and quality certification program used by manufacturers in more than 100 countries.

According to Cooke Aquaculture, an increasing number of retailers in Europe and North America demand third-party certification of the company that supply them and the BRC has become a trusted and independent certification source.