The original company FCS was accredited in 1997 by the United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) to the European Standard EN45011 to provide product conformity certification in accordance with FCS’s quality manuals for Scottish Quality Farmed Salmon and Scottish Quality Smoked Salmon.
Today, FCS which has now been renamed as FCI has expanded its areas of competence to deal not only with the whole of the salmon farming chain, including organic production, from broodstock to finished fresh and smoked product but also to include other wild caught and farmed shellfish and finfish species as well as other food and environmental sectors.
Assuring the food production chain at home and abroad
FCI's competence and reputation has been built through experience in the farmed salmon and commercial fisheries sector's.
The farmed salmon industry is one of the great success stories of the Scottish rural economy. The Scottish industry produces over 145,000 tonnes of high quality farmed salmon a year for consumption at home and abroad, around 95% of this total production is quality assured under one of the range FCI certified Product Certification Schemes or Codes of Good Practice.
The farmed salmon industry generates and supports, both directly and indirectly, some 6,500 jobs and, as well as significant business in the UK, earns around £200 million in exports.
Much of the industry's growth has been due to its successful marketing of high quality products assured under its Product Certification Schemes for fresh and smoked salmon.
The original scheme for Scottish Quality Farmed Salmon, which embraces all aspects of production and further processing, was introduced in the early 1980s. The scheme for smoked salmon derived from salmon certified under the fresh scheme was introduced in 1992. Both were independently assessed and certified by FCI and finished product certified under these schemes were identified by a Mark of Conformity - Tartan Quality Mark (TQM). The TQM Scheme has now been superceeded by the Product Certification Scheme for label Rouge Scottish farmed Salmon (LR)
FCI is also accredited by the French National Commission for Labels and Product Certification, the first non-French certification body to achieve this status.
This allows the company to provide product conformity certification for Label Rouge Scottish Farmed Salmon and Label Rouge Scottish Farmed Salmon Portions.
Label Rouge Scottish farmed salmon is the first non-French product to carry the prestigious Label Rouge mark and was the first fresh fish product to meet the rigorous standards laid down by the French authorities. |
