The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Food (MAPA) reports the approval of a new quality labeling aimed to clearly identify its national fishery, aquaculture, and shellfish produce throughout all marketing phases.
According to MAPA, the measure reinforces the tracking system for aquaculture and seafood producers throughout Spain. These include quality control from first production to consumer delivery.
The January 23 Royal Decree regulates the identification of all fishery, aquaculture, and seafood produce, including live, fresh, refrigerated or cooked, and is extensive nation wide regardless of product origin.
Basically the new regulation is an extension from the fresh, refrigerated and cooked produce standards that now also cover live products.
The new decree revokes a 1999 rule regulating normalisation and classification of fresh, refrigerated and cooked products, making it compulsory for packing plants to label the production method. These classifications include extracted fish, fresh-water yields, aquaculture-farmed species, and shellfish.
The catch or breeding zone, and in some cases country of origin must also be specified. The species' trade and scientific has to be specified along with production method, net weight for packaged products, type of presentation, and the first shipping point.
All the data must be clearly specified on the package label, identifying it throughout the whole chain beginning with the first marketing phase, transport, distribution, and finally supermarket shelves. However there’s a contemplation, the final shelf label may exclude the specific scientific denomination as well as the first shipping point, to avoid confusing the consumer.