Welfare farmed pangasius
Welfare labelling of farmed pangasius and Atlantic salmon products for consumers of a large retailer such as Albert Heijn, is an adequate response by the sector, i.e. the consortium of companies involved in the proposed project, to previously described societal developments. However, creating a new label for consumers is not desirable, considering the number of existing labels and thereby the need to avoid confusion. For reasons of feasibility, a welfare label for consumers should be an add-on to a well-known existing label for consumers such as ASC.
The objective is to develop criteria and a consumer label for welfare of farmed pangasius and Atlantic salmon, as an adequate response to current societal views on sustainability. It should be noted that the aim is not to develop a new consumer label, which is likely to cause confusion or it will not be noticed among the plethora of existing labels.
The development of a fish welfare label for both farmed pangasius and Atlantic salmon for consumers. This label will lead to an optimization of welfare of both fish species. Animal welfare is a sub-theme of the concept of Sustainability. Another implication of optimized fish welfare is that volumes of fish captured to produce fishmeal and fish oil for feed can be reduced, as well as plant-based ingredients. A more efficient use of resources will contribute to a reduction in carbon footprint. As a consequence, the impact of the proposed project reduces the ecological impact of the aquaculture sector, which is relevant for the sustainability of aquaculture.
The project target (see 2.2) clearly shows that the project contributes to two important sub-themes of the sustainability concept, viz. ecology and animal welfare. Obviously, an improvement of the sustainability of farming pangasius and Atlantic salmon complies with priority 35 (sustainable farming of fish) that belongs to MMIP E5 Fisheries.
The planned deliverables and milestones are described below.
Work package 1 Deliverable 1.1 A lists of ranked hazards for production of pangasius that are ranked Milestone 1.1 Knowledge gaps with respect to animal-based and input-based criteria to evaluate welfare during production will be established
Work package 2 Deliverable 2.1 Specifications for effective stunning and killing needed to design and construct a stunner or modify an existing one Milestone 2.1 Experiments in a commercial setting (or similar to that) done to establish specifications for stunning and killing of pangasius
Work package 3 (Pangasius) Deliverable 3.1 Add-on welfare module and consumer label for pangasius Milestone 3.1 Animal-based indicators supplemented with input-based indicator and criteria for both types of indicators
Work package 4 (Atlantic salmon) Deliverable 4.1 Add-on welfare module and consumer label for Atlantic salmon Milestone 4.1 Input from the Norwegian project FISHWELL will be used
Work package 5 Deliverable 5.1 Brief internal reports every three months. In 2020 only two internal reports will be prepared. Deliverable 5.2 Report first year Deliverable 5.3 Report second year Deliverable 5.4 Report third year and final report