Freedom Food accreditation for SSC
The endorsement is an important step forward for the company as it applies for the RSPCA’s Freedom Food accreditation across all its sites in the West Coast and islands of Scotland, in addition to its accreditation by SSPCA.
The Freedom Food accreditation has also been awarded to the company’s harvest station at Lochinver and processing plant at Cairndow.
The entire process will take up to two years and is being headed up by Planner Kim Irvine.
Kim said: “We are delighted to have been granted Freedom Food status at three marine sites in Mull and Loch Carron, our harvest station and processing plant.
“Our procedures mean that we are currently working to the RSPCA fish welfare standard but the accreditation under Freedom Food gives formality to our working practices.
“It is a long process, up to two years, to complete the accreditation across the company as each site is assessed individually at the time of restocking, but it is very worthwhile as fish welfare is very important.”
Freedom Food is the RSPCA’s farm assurance and food labelling scheme. It is the only UK farm assurance scheme to focus solely on improving the welfare of farm animals reared for food.
The Freedom Food scheme covers every stage of the fish’s life, governed by strict and compulsory RSPCA welfare standards. Marine and freshwater farms are inspected against the RSPCA welfare standards, which included criteria on grading, moving and handling, transportation and slaughter.
