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VeriFish, a project funded under Horizon Europe will provide a framework of verifiable sustainability indicators based on existing EU and global databases. VeriFish will work on the creation of a prototype web application, a series of media products and recommendations for communicating sustainability indicators to various stakeholders including guidelines for retail and the hospitality sectors. The goal is to provide an accessible and dynamic framework for the improvement of communication and understanding of sustainable seafood production and consumption.
Stimulate increased consumption of sustainable seafood by establishing a framework of verifiable indicators, using these as basis for targeted, accessible, and engaging media products and campaigns, and delivering European Good Practice recommendations on how to efficiently organise such campaigns.
The primary goal of VeriFish is to develop ways to integrate indicators from different sources and to make recommendations for how to present and visualise different types of indicators in a uniform manner for a specific seafood type and consumer group.
For that, VeriFish will elaborate a framework of verifiable indicators, considering environmental sustainability, social sustainability, origin, provenance, processes, health, and nutrition, leveraging on trustworthy data sources from FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries, EUROFIR’s FoodEXplorer, FISHBASE, the global species database of fish species, and more.
Several media products, including guidelines and a prototype web application, will be developed to help make informed consumption choices.
The indicators framework must not only be communicated to seafood producers and retailers, but also to policymakers, citizens and children. Therefore, a storytelling series, recipe books for kids, puzzles, and posters are among the planned product outputs. Finally, the project will develop and publish European Good Practice recommendations, co-designed with seafood sector stakeholders, on how to efficiently use the indicator framework to communicate with citizens.
Establish a framework of indicators that can be used as basis for making verifiable claims about seafood.
Establish a Community of Practice (CoP) of organisations and stakeholders committed to promoting sustainable seafood.
Design a prototype of a App for Mobile & We providing factsheets with indicator lists, links, and recommendations on how to make transparent & verificable claims about specific types of seafood to specific consumer groups.
Create and distribute media products and run awareness campaigns to provide verifiable information on seafood.
Provide a EU Good Practice recommendation for how to efficiently organise sustainable seafood consumption campaigns, and to publish this recommendation as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA).
Ensures the timely and high-quality results through efficient administrative, technical, organisational, and financial coordination.
Administrative and financial management, scientific & technological coordination, decision making and conflict resolution, quality assurance and risk management, ethics management, External Advisory Board (EAB).
Leading partner: TURST-IT
WP2 will develop a European framework for verified seafood indicators, so that any communication campaign can access, and use verified and qualified information.
Develop a set of system-wide science-based indicators related to sustainability, provenance, nutrition, and health. For year 1 the WP will define 1) data requirements for appropriate end use, 2) the indicator framework, 3) prioritisation of the indicators, and 4) the data use policy. This will lead to a set of Guidelines for the use of verifiable seafood indicators.
Lead partner: EUROFIR AISBL
WP3 will raise awareness, inform and promote VeriFish´s main assets among 8 identified stakeholder categories and to increase consumers ´awareness about how to “choose fish” based on verifiable indicators.
Leading partner: Eurofish
WP4 will use the indicator framework developed in WP2 and the experiences from the outreach work in WP3 to develop a Good Practices recommendation that take all these issues into consideration.
Project coordinator and dissemination.
Contact: Sara Pittonet
Dissemination and develop the scoring system and guidelines for communication of the use of the indicator framework
Develop the verifiable indicator framework and the prototype of the VeriFish web app
Develop the European Good Practice recommendation on seafood communication and dissemination
Develop the verifiable indicator framework
Contribution to the development of the verifiable indicator framework
Develop the verifiable indicator framework and dissemination
Consultant at FAO
EATiP General Secretary
Engagement leader at the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) initiative
ICES Expert Program Manager in International Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science, Policy, and Management
CNR IRBIM of Ancona – chair of STECF and involved in the development of indicators for the EU
Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.
Andrea Fabris born 11.08.1968, Italian, has a Veterinary Medicine full graduation achieved at the University of Parma. He has also a Specialization in “Farming, Hygiene, Pathology of Aquatic Species and Control of Derivative Products ” achieved at Udine University and a Specialization in “Animal Feeding” obtained at Bologna University.
Actually (from May 2016) he is Director of Associazione Piscicoltori Italiani (API – Italian Fish Farmers Association). At National level behalf of API he is member of some working groups at the General Direction for Fisheries and Aquaculture of Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Italian Ministry of Health regarding aquaculture EU rules and their implementation at national and regional level, and member of Exotic Species Aquaculture Committee – Italian Ministry of Agriculture. Lecturer on in training /courses organized by Ministry of Health, Universities and Local Veterinary Authorities; member of Board of Directors of SIPI (Italian Society of Fish Pathology).
He is also involved at international level with the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) as Chairman of FEAP Fish Health and Welfare Commission. Andrea is part of the FVE (Federation of Veterinarians Europe) Aquaculture Working Group, and of FishMedPlus Coalition, and from the beginning member of Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) where is actually Chair of WG1 – Finfish.
He published as an author or co-author about 30 articles on international and national scientific journals concerning Fish pathology and Aquaculture and more than 60 issues on divulgative (fishermen and aquaculture producers associations) publications
Anne shapes global sustainable fisheries and aquaculture policies through her work at the science-policy interface. Driven by a commitment to improving human lives and aquatic ecosystems, she serves as the Professional Officer for Fisheries and Aquaculture Advice at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Anne leads ICES’ efforts in developing and applying methods to provide scientific advice on data-limited fish and shellfish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic, covering over 60% of ICES stocks. She also heads the development of ICES’
advisory framework for sustainable aquaculture. Before joining ICES, Anne advised on national fisheries, aquaculture, climate, and marine science policy in the US Senate, House of Representatives, and NOAA. She holds a Ph.D. in Conservation Biology and Development Studies and Social Change Theory and an M.Sc. in Fisheries Science from the University of Minnesota.
A fishery biologist presently employed at the National Research Council, Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (Ancona, Italy), he brings to the table more than thirty years of expertise in marine environmental conservation and sustainable resource management. Over the course of his career, he has overseen and participated in numerous international projects focused on understanding and mitigating anthropic impacts on marine ecosystems. Since 2019, he holds a membership in the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) under the European Commission. Within this role, he has chaired two STECF Expert Working Groups (EWG 22-12 and EWG 23-18), where he led efforts to establish scientifically robust yet accessible criteria and indicators for assessing the sustainability of fisheries products.
Irene Kranendonk is the Impact Manager at Fish Tales and a board member of the Fish Tales Foundation. Her work focuses on developing and guiding Fish Tales’ sourcing criteria including management of the environmental and social certification schemes. With the Fish Tales Foundation and local partner organizations, she drives social and environmental improvements in small scale fisheries. Irene holds a master’s degree from Wageningen University in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management and is specialized in the field of fisheries ecology. In a previous role, Irene was sustainable seafood assessor for the Dutch seafood rating scheme the VISwijzer.
