BAP Certifies North American Salmon Smokehouse
Congratulations to The MacKnight Food Group. The company’s smoked salmon processing plant in Miami, Florida, has attained Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification, the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) announced in late October.
The 15,000-square-foot Miami facility is one of four processing plants owned and operated by the privately owned company. The secondary processing plant produces smoked salmon products, which are then shipped to retail and foodservice customers throughout the United States.
MacKnight produces a wide variety of smoked salmon products using Atlantic salmon farmed in Scotland, Norway and Chile, including smoked salmon sides, sliced smoked salmon, smoked salmon fleurettes, smoked salmon mignons, salmon bacon and salmon burgers.
“Responsible aquaculture is of the utmost importance to MacKnight,” said MacKnight CEO Jonathan Brown. “As the world’s reliance on farmed fish grows, it is up to everyone in the industry to ensure we all follow the best possible practices. BAP is striving to ensure this happens, and we are delighted our Miami operation is a pioneer in meeting its stringent demands. We are confident our other facilities will soon also get accreditation.
“As a company we have a responsibility not just to our customers but also to the environment, and BAP certification shows we are on the right track,” added Brown. “We will continue to work hard to ensure that our salmon products are not only the best, but also continue to meet the highest environmental, welfare and food-safety standards.”
Through the first three-quarters of 2017, there were a total of 1,737 BAP-certified facilities in 31 counties and six continents, including 392 processing plants, 1,072 farms, 173 hatcheries and 95 feed mills.
BAP is the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with aquaculture standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal health and welfare and traceability. It’s also the only program to cover the entire aquaculture production chain — processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of the press release incorrectly stated that MacKnight was the first salmon smokehouse in North America to earn BAP certification. It is not. GAA apologizes for the error.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
