Sustainability & Responsible Practices

NETUNO USA imports frozen seafood from 15 Countries on 3 different continents. We source 17 varieties of fish, 4 mollusks (clam, conch, octopus, and squid), and 3 crustacean shellfish (lobster, crab, and shrimp). 20 are wild-caught and 4 are farmed (Clam, Shrimp, Mediterranean Seabass/Branzino, and Barramundi). We are one of the leading US importers for the Grouper/Snapper species, and bring volumes of Seabass, Corvina, Mahi, Cobia, Flounder, Unicorn, and Parrotfish.

To assure high-level quality for our products, NETUNO USA follows our own HACCP and Recall Plan and comply with FDA rules for seafood imports with the following steps:

• Keeping a record of updated HACCP Plans and sanitation control from all supplying plants, in English and signed by the local QA Team
• Obtaining lot-by-lot certificate issued by the foreign government inspection authority
• Proceed annual in loco plant, boats and farms inspection
• Encourage plants to adopt high standard Food Safety protocols (like GFSI) through third-party audits and certification (BRC, BAP, FSSC, ISO)
• Adopt a strict packaging and labeling protocol and run DNA tests when needed to avoid mislabeling products
• Adopt TraceRegister™ software to keep compliance update record and database of all plants suppliers
• Encourage suppliers to adopt also Food Defense protocols to comply with section 402 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic/Bioterrorism Act

The great majority of seafood sourced by NETUNO USA is from open-based stocks in developing countries. Sustainable management and conservation must be done over the stock and the habitats to assure supply for future generations. To avoid overfishing NETUNO encourages fishermen, NGOs, local governments, and other fishery stakeholders to pursue MSC Sustainable Fishery Certification or to start FIPs (Fishery Improvement Projects).

What are MSC Certifications & FIPS?

Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global nonprofit organization. The MSC created the most common and comprehensive standard to define Sustainable Fisheries. A fishery can voluntarily submit to evaluation under the MSC standard by a 3rd party certification body (also known as CABs). CABs are also subjected to a 3rd party accreditation by ASI (Assurance Services International).

Currently there are nearly 470 fisheries in 53 different countries that achieved the MSC Certified Sustainable Label. More than 35,000 products carry the MSC logo in 112 different countries representing more than 900,000 tons of labeled product. Despite growing fast when compared with total landings (near 80 million tons), MSC labeled products barely reaches 1% off global fishery production.

If an assessed fishery fails in one or more of the 28 performance indicators of MSC standard, a smart step for them is to start a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) to address the problem(s) found by the auditor assessment team. Companies, governments, NGOs, Unions and fishermen should joint effort to change any unsustainable practices, whether over the stock, or the management and enforcement policies in place.

Fisheryprogress.org is a comprehensive website portal where anyone can find more information about FIPs all over the world and track their improvement progress.

Learn more about the MSC standards: https://www.msc.org/

Know more about what FIPs are doing worldwide: https://fisheryprogress.org