Scotland-based salmon farmer Loch Duart has launched its own salmon welfare standard it has dubbed the “Loch Duart Standard.”

The company announced the new standard on 8 May, explaining that the new standard is a bespoke assessment process designed around how Loch Duart raises its salmon on a smaller scale with lower-density pens. 

“The new standard represents a deliberate move away from existing frameworks, which have increasingly been adapted to suit larger operations,” the company said.

Loch Duart said its new standard includes on-site audits, and its farms will be independently managed and assessed by Leigh Grant Consulting and Partners in Welfare. The company said the “Loch Duart Standard” includes more on-site audits to provide greater accountability and independent verification, all designed around Loch Duart’s “small-scale, welfare-focused farming.”

“We’re proud of our 25-year track record of innovation, leading the way in fish welfare and low-impact farming,” Loch Duart Managing Director Mark Warrington said. “Our unique, small-scale approach to raising salmon, which we call ‘The Loch Duart Way,’ has always set us apart. Now, with the introduction of the ‘Loch Duart Standard,’ we’ve created a bespoke framework tailored specifically to small-scale farming operations and not adapted from large-scale models. This new standard reflects how we farm; hands-on, welfare-led and future-focused.”

The company said regular on-site inspections through independent audits will improve the transparency of Loch Duart’s salmon farming practices and animal welfare. It added the standard will remain “dynamic and agile” to better reflect advancements in fish welfare practices and environmental management.

“It’s one more example of Loch Duart going above and beyond industry norms by putting fish welfare first and ensuring that every member of our team is accountable to the high standards we work to,” Warrington said.

Leigh Grant Consulting said it has been given unfettered access to all of Loch Duart’s farming sites and can carry out inspections at any time – meaning most of them will be unannounced.

“Importantly, and quite uniquely, whilst we will always audit documentation to ensure comprehensive record-keeping, these inspections will always focus on the fish, and the majority of our time will be spent observing staff interactions with the salmon to ensure compliance to the Loch Duart Standard,” Leigh Grant Consulting said.  

Source - https://www.seafoodsource.com