This deliverable presents the dissemination events roadmap developed under VeriFish Task 3.5 and documents how event-based activities supported the project’s communication, stakeholder engagement and outreach objectives throughout the project period (May 2024 to April 2026). The report shows that events were used not only to increase visibility of VeriFish results, but also to create dialogue around the project’s main outputs, including the indicator framework, communication guidelines, web app and media products. In particular the three-day final event combined a CWA workshop, a public dissemination and validation day, and a consortium meeting, allowing the project to connect external outreach with internal refinement and exploitation planning. Across the project period, VeriFish was represented in a range of external events relevant to seafood sustainability, food systems, traceability, aquaculture, nutrition, policy and stakeholder dialogue. These activities helped position the project within broader European and international discussions, while also supporting networking and clustering with related initiatives. Their value was strongest where VeriFish was explicitly presented or discussed in relation to its outputs and target audiences. Overall, the roadmap confirms that event-based dissemination made a relevant contribution to awareness raising, stakeholder engagement, validation of project outputs, and wider visibility of VeriFish in sectoral and policy environments. It also highlights lessons for future projects, particularly the need for strong evidence captures, careful wording, and a focus on event quality and follow-up.
D3.6 Communication, stakeholder engagement final report is the final public report on communication, dissemination, campaigns, and stakeholder engagement under WP3 of VeriFish. Its purpose is to show how the project’s technical results were translated into accessible formats, disseminated through different channels, and discussed with relevant stakeholders across the seafood value chain and beyond. WP3 delivered a broad communication portfolio. The main outputs included the VeriFish website, the VeriFish web & mobile application and the browsable factsheets, twelve newsletters, seven Eurofish Magazine articles, twenty-three videos, social media campaigns, educational and awareness-raising media products, the cookbook and recipe cards, the Overfished! card game, the calendar, the fishing methods poster, the species puzzle, influencer campaigns, and a structured programme of internal and external events. The project reached a wide range of stakeholder groups, including seafood producers, aquaculture actors, researchers, policy and advisory stakeholders, standards-related actors, educators, children and families, and the wider public. Engagement was strongest where stakeholders could interact directly with concrete outputs, especially the web-app, the factsheets, the educational materials, and the final event validation sessions. The Community of Practice reached 207 active communities and 100+ individuals, while direct requests (100+) for the web-app and media products showed clear external interest from organisations across research, education, industry, NGOs, and public institutions. The most effective communication channels were the website and LinkedIn, supported by newsletters, videos, events, and targeted campaigns. The strongest formats were those that turned the VeriFish framework into practical tools and understandable content, especially the app, factsheets, educational products, and short videos. Overall, WP3 showed that the indicator framework can be communicated in accessible ways when the format matches the audience and when communication is linked to concrete outputs rather than abstract project messaging. The main lesson is that communication worked best when it was built around tangible products, targeted formats, and opportunities for feedback or reuse. After the end of the project, several outputs retain clear value, particularly the website, the web-app, the factsheets, the cookbook, the educational materials, and the videos, which can continue to support awareness and understanding of responsible seafood communication beyond the project lifetime.
The VeriFish Good Practice recommendation is intended as a practical tool for actors involved in seafood communication and marketing, supporting the design of campaigns that engage consumers more effectively. This recommendation is published as a low-level, voluntary European standard which will be distributed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA). The CWA is designed to help the seafood industry communicate with consumers about their products, and the aim is to support an increase in sustainable seafood consumption. This report D4.3 – “Documentation of the consensus-driven CWA process” is linked to task 4.3 – “Stakeholder consultation campaigns towards a European Good Practice recommendation” within VeriFish and describes the CWA process in some detail, with documents, procedures, and participants. This document accompanies D4.2 – “Good Practice Recommendation” which describes the outcome of the CWA process; the CWA itself. The content of this document are the details around how the CWA process was organised. A key component is the “Workshop Description Form” which has to be filled in by the workshop proposer (VeriFish) and accepted by CEN and the secretariat; this form is in Annex A. The agenda for the kick-off meeting can be found in Annex B, and the minutes of the kick-off meeting can be found in Annex C. The official version of all these documents can be found on the web page set up by CEN for the VeriFish CWA at: https://www.cencenelec.eu/news-events/news/2025/workshop/2025-05-19-verifish/
The goal of a CWA process is to achieve consensus, and for VeriFish we managed this. On the beginning of the process there was a lot of discussion and some disagreement on scope and direction for the Good Practice recommendation, but as new drafts were made based on comments received, a common understanding of what the CWA should contain developed, and discussions were on minor issues only. At the consensus meeting none of the participants opted out of the process due to disagreement with the recommendations, which seems to indicate that the goal of the process was reached.
The VeriFish Good Practice recommendation is intended as a practical tool for actors involved in seafood communication and marketing, supporting the design of campaigns that engage consumers more effectively. This recommendation is published as a low-level, voluntary European standard which will be distributed by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA). The CWA is designed to help the seafood industry communicate with consumers about their products, and the aim is to support an increase in sustainable seafood consumption. This report (D4.2 – “Good Practice Recommendation”) is linked to task 4.2 – “CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA)” within VeriFish and is based on VeriFish D4.1 – “Initial Recommendation for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood”, which drew on inputs and experiences from WP2 and WP3, as well as existing literature and established knowledge on the issue. The content of this document describes the outcome of the CWA process after extensive stakeholder consultation, hearing periods, and a consensus meeting. The content of this deliverable (from Table of Content and onwards) was sent to the CWA secretariat (Standard Norway) for publication in April 2026, and unless minor editorial changes are made, reflects what the content of the officially published CWA will be. Through CEN, the recommendations will be published as a voluntary European standard, which may serve as a foundation for future implementations, Good Practice recommendations or higher-level standards (e.g. CEN or ISO). The details around the CWA process are described in D4.3 – “Documentation of the consensus-driven CWA process”. Following the introduction, this report is structured in four chapters: 1 Scope, 2 Terms and definitions, 3 General principles for seafood marketing, and 4 Recommendations for seafood marketing. Chapter 3 General principles for seafood marketing,sets out principles for effective seafood marketing by emphasizing consumer segmentation (consumer types), product differentiation (seafood types), and contextual communication. The chapter highlights the importance of aligning communication with everyday consumer needs, values and decision-making processes. It also underscores the growing role of digital tools and media channels. Chapter 4 Recommendations for seafood marketing, translates the general principles into recommendations for seafood marketing. It stresses the importance of defining target audiences and adapting messages to appropriate channels and formats. The chapter also have a recommendations table which outlines what information to highlight for different consumer and seafood type combinations. Finally, it addresses potential and limitations of using Artificial Intelligence as a support tool, emphasizing accuracy and regulatory compliance. Chapter 4 is accompanied by Annex A.1 and A.2, which provides two examples on how the recommendations table (Table 1) can be used by seafood companies. Additionally, Annex B presents an example of how Large Language Models can be used as an assisting tool in targeted seafood campaigns.
De Sanctis, Nicole, Absil, Christine, Duri, Sabrina, barazzetta, francesca, Pittonet Gaiarin, Sara, Salvo Borda, Ixai, Astley, Sian
The VeriFish Calendar is an educational media product developed within the Horizon Europe VeriFish project to support accessible communication on seafood, nutrition, and sustainability. Designed for consumers, families, schools, educators, and seafood communicators, the calendar presents twelve seafood species through a combination of species information, nutritional highlights, recipe ideas, and sustainability-related explanations.
Each monthly page introduces one seafood species and provides concise educational content intended to make seafood choices more understandable and evidence-informed. The calendar links seafood consumption not only to taste and cooking, but also to nutrition, origin, production systems, fisheries management, aquaculture practices, and environmental considerations.
The calendar is designed without year-specific weekdays or fixed calendar dates, allowing it to be reused across multiple years as a long-term educational and outreach resource. This format supports continued use in classrooms, public awareness campaigns, consumer communication activities, and seafood-related events.
The information included in the calendar is sourced from the FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF) and EuroFIR FoodEXplorer, which includes more than 40 national food composition datasets. The calendar’s data are current up to April 2026.
This resource forms part of the VeriFish media products developed to translate verifiable seafood indicators into accessible communication tools for citizens and wider stakeholder communities.
The VeriFish “Discover the Diversity of the Ocean” poster and puzzle are educational media products developed within the Horizon Europe VeriFish project to support seafood literacy, biodiversity awareness, and informed seafood consumption choices.
The poster presents 136 seafood species assessed by the VeriFish project, combining detailed species illustrations with scientific and common names. It is designed as a visual learning resource for educators, children, consumers, consumer associations, and outreach organisations interested in exploring the diversity of fish and seafood species and the complexity of seafood sustainability.
The resource is connected to the broader VeriFish Indicator Framework, which organises information across three complementary dimensions of seafood sustainability: environmental sustainability, socio-economic aspects, and nutritional value. By linking species identification with accessible visual communication, the poster helps users better recognise marine biodiversity and understand that responsible seafood consumption depends on more than a single indicator.
The poster is also available in a puzzle format, offering a hands-on and interactive way to engage with the same content. This version is particularly suitable for classrooms, public engagement activities, workshops, awareness campaigns, and informal learning contexts.
Both formats include QR codes linking users to the VeriFish web app and project website, where further information on species, sustainability indicators, factsheets, and related educational materials can be accessed.
This media product contributes to the VeriFish objective of transforming complex seafood sustainability data into accessible, reusable and engaging communication tools for citizens, educators, and seafood value-chain stakeholders.
The VeriFish app represents a key milestone in making seafood sustainability information accessible to European consumers and stakeholders. This document presents a concise description of the final release of the VeriFish web and mobile application D3.5 Prototype of the web app - final release - DEM, marking the completion of the prototype development cycle initiated with D3.2 VeriFish web app requirements & specification document and D3.4 Prototype of the web app - initial release. The application is now publicly available as a web-app at the address https://app.verifish.info/ and is being published on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store during May 2026.
The final release builds on all core functionalities developed in the initial release -species factsheets, multilingual search, sustainability indicators, nutritional data, and provenance information- and introduces a significant architectural upgrade: the migration of the backend data layer from Firebase/Firestore to Supabase. This change was driven by the need for more expressive and flexible query capabilities, enabling richer data filtering, more efficient joins across species data, and better support for structured analytics that the application's growing data model required. This release also addresses the feedback received during the two feedback gathering sessions organised on 20 November 2025 during the VeriFish Workshop at the Catch Welfare Platform Conference 2025, and on 11 March 2026 in conjunction with the VeriFish final event (both sessions are further reported in D3.6 Communication, stakeholder engagement final report)
In addition, the final release introduces major enhancements to usability and performance, including a fully redesigned user interface based on expert feedback, simplified navigation, integration of new data sources such as the dataset from EU’s STECF, and an expanded set of socio-economic, environmental, and aquaculture indicators’ data.
Fishing Methods at a Glance is an educational visual resource developed by VeriFish to support understanding of how seafood is harvested from the ocean.
The poster presents eight commonly used fishing gear types – pelagic trawl, bottom trawl, pole-and-line, longlines, purse seine nets, boat seine nets, gillnets and entangling nets, and fykes, traps and pots – together with examples of species typically associated with each method.
Designed for clarity and accessibility, the resource provides short explanations of how each fishing method works and introduces key fisheries concepts such as bycatch, ghost fishing, and schooling species. By presenting this information in a simple visual format, the poster helps make the environmental context of seafood production easier to understand.
The resource is intended for educators and students, seafood sector stakeholders, science communicators, and interested consumers.
The poster can be downloaded in the following languages: English, Dutch, Polish, Italian, Spanish, German, Norwegian and French.
This deliverable presents the final version of the VeriFish Knowledge Base (KB), developed under Task T2.3, as well as its associated API and access services, which constitute the final demonstrator supporting the VeriFish Indicator Framework. The KB enables unified, verifiable access to environmental, socio-economic, and nutrition and health data, allowing users to explore, query, and retrieve indicator-related information through the VeriFish web application. Building upon the initial KB version, which was based on the Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries (GRSF), the final version is significantly extended both in terms of its scope and coverage. The VeriFish KB integrates an expanded set of 22 distinct authoritative data sources both at European and global levels, strengthening the representation of all sustainability dimensions addressed by the VeriFish framework. VeriFish KB integrates these datasets and assumes their reliability based on the credibility and established practices of the source organizations curating them. In parallel, the services for discovering and accessing KB resources have been further developed, offering enhanced querying capabilities and improved usability.Given the complexity of the demonstrator and its underlying data integration and semantic modeling processes, this deliverable is accompanied by the current report that documents the structure, functionality, and usage of the KB and its API. This documentation is necessary to support transparency, reproducibility, and effective use by stakeholders. In addition, updates to the VeriFish Indicator Framework are reported, including refinements to existing indicators and their explicit alignment with the underlying data sources. These updates are directly operationalised within the KB and are therefore essential for understanding how indicator values are derived and accessed through the demonstrator. The KB enables the integration and combined analysis of heterogeneous datasets within a single system, supporting the computation and comparison of sustainability indicators in a way that is not possible when using these sources in isolation.
These Guidelines provide a structured communication framework for describing sustainability-related information about fishery and aquaculture products in a transparent, evidence-based, and legally aware manner. They are intended for producers, processors, retailers, food service operators, consumer organisations, and policymakers who need to communicate environmental, socio-economic, and nutritional characteristics of seafood responsibly. The Guidelines do not constitute legal advice and do not function as a certification scheme, product approval system, or regulatory instrument.
The framework is organised around three distinct pillars: Environmental, Socio-economic, and Nutritional. Each pillar contains defined indicators that describe measurable aspects of performance. Indicators may be communicated descriptively or, where scientifically or regulatorily defined reference points exist, translated into scores using a distance-to-target approach. This method expresses performance relative to benchmarks rather than ranking products against one another. Where evidence is incomplete, precautionary interpretation or withholding of a score may be necessary to avoid overstating certainty.
Evidence is structured through a tiered logic. Tier 1 relies on publicly available, harmonised datasets, while Tier 2 refers to verified and auditable information provided by value-chain actors. All communicated information must be traceable to documented sources, clearly defined methodologies, and explicitly stated scope conditions. Communication outputs are treated as versioned and auditable, enabling organisations to demonstrate what was communicated, on what evidentiary basis, and at what point in time. Responsibility for regulatory compliance, claim substantiation, and supply-chain traceability remains with the operator placing information on the market.The Guidelines provide operational principles for visualisation and deployment across packaging, retail environments, digital platforms, and educational or campaign contexts. Icons represent categories of information rather than performance judgements. Colour scales must be benchmarked and explained. Layered communication, such as QR-linked access to structured indicator pages, supports concise presentation while preserving transparency and proportionality.
The objective of the framework is to reduce greenwashing risk, strengthen credibility, and improve clarity in seafood sustainability communication. The communication principles and procedures described are derived from the development work of the VeriFish project and informed by stakeholder consultation and pilot deployment. While elements of the framework have been tested in prototype applications, ongoing refinement and validation remain part of its continued implementation. These Guidelines therefore represent best-practice recommendations designed to support disciplined, transparent, and accountable communication, without implying endorsement, certification authority, or regulatory status.
This document represents the initial, written version of the VeriFish Children’s “Let’s cook seafood” Recipe Book, designed to cater to children's taste preferences. At the current status the cookbook contains 19 recipes that will be available as a digital item via the VeriFish website at the URL https://verifish.info/verifish-cookbook/. Each of the recipes contains ingredients, cooking steps, alternatives for seafood type, fun facts about the species and nutritional information about the seafood species. The content included in this deliverable will evolve in its digital version until the end of the VeriFish project, with new recipes to be added (up to 60) and made available via the VeriFish website, the VeriFish web-app, where they will be linked to the related factsheet species, and used as a reference also in other VeriFish dissemination materials such as the VeriFish Calendar. The VeriFish Recipe book is a concrete example of implementation of the VeriFish indicator framework in a daily life context targeting families and European citizens at large. It focuses specifically on nutritional aspects, providing evidence of nutrition information per each recipe, combined with good sustainability profiles of the selected species based on the VeriFish environmental and socio-economic indicators.
Sian Astley EuroFIR AISBL on behalf of the VeriFish Consortium, Belgium.
Background and objectives: VeriFish (project no. 101156426) has developed a comprehensive indicator framework for the aquafood sector, addressing environmental, stock management, and nutritional dimensions. This initiative aims to simplify and standardise communication, fostering informed consumer choices and enhancing transparency. By integrating verifiable data into actors’ communication strategies, the framework seeks to promote responsible consumption patterns, ensure the sustainability of aquafood systems, and support good communication practices tailored to diverse stakeholder needs.
Methods: The indicators were identified through systematic review, focusing on core dimensions such as stock status, ecosystem impacts, climate footprint, governance, and nutritional attributes. The framework employs a tiered data approach: Tier 1 uses publicly available data ensuring broad availability, while Tier 2 incorporates value-chain-specific data to provide detailed, granular insights. This dual approach ensures flexibility and relevance across diverse operational contexts, facilitating adoption and integration by both small-scale and large-scale actors in the value-chain.
Results: The framework provides measurable indicators for capture fisheries, aquaculture, and nutrition, enabling assessment of key sustainability metrics such as biodiversity conservation, carbon emissions, resource efficiency, and public health. These indicators form the basis of a prototype web application that will facilitate communication of sustainability by actors and enable consumers to make more informed decisions based on their priorities, such as environmental impact, nutritional quality, or responsible production.
Conclusions: By standardising sustainability reporting and enhancing value-chain communication, the VeriFish framework enables aquafood actors to align with global environmental and health objectives. Potentially, it can foster consumer trust and empowerment, promote responsible ‘advertising’ practices, and pave the way for diverse, sustainable consumption. This framework represents a step toward a more transparent, equitable, and environmentally responsible aquafood sector, benefiting producers, consumers, and the environment alike.
Background and Objectives: VeriFish (project no. 101156426) has developed a comprehensive indicator framework for the aquafood sector, addressing environmental, stock management, and nutritional dimensions. This initiative aims to simplify and standardise communication, fostering informed consumer choices and enhancing transparency. By integrating verifiable data into actors’ communication strategies, the framework seeks to promote responsible consumption patterns, ensure the sustainability of aquafood systems, and support good communication practices tailored to diverse stakeholder needs.
Methods: The indicators were identified through systematic review, focusing on core dimensions such as stock status, ecosystem impacts, climate footprint, governance, and nutritional attributes. The framework employs a tiered data approach: Tier 1 uses publicly available data ensuring broad availability, while Tier 2 incorporates value-chain-specific data to provide detailed, granular insights. This dual approach ensures flexibility and relevance across diverse operational contexts, facilitating adoption and integration by both small-scale and large-scale actors in the value-chain.
Results: The framework provides measurable indicators for capture fisheries, aquaculture, and nutrition, enabling assessment of key sustainability metrics such as biodiversity conservation, carbon emissions, resource efficiency, and public health. These indicators form the basis of a prototype web application that will facilitate communication of sustainability by actors and enable consumers to make more informed decisions based on their priorities, such as environmental impact, nutritional quality, or responsible production.
Conclusions: By standardising sustainability reporting and enhancing value-chain communication, the VeriFish framework enables aquafood actors to align with global environmental and health objectives. Potentially, it can foster consumer trust and empowerment, promote responsible ‘advertising’ practices, and pave the way for diverse, sustainable consumption. This framework represents a step toward a more transparent, equitable, and environmentally responsible aquafood sector, benefiting producers, consumers, and the environment alike.
Authors on behalf of the VeriFish (project no. 101156426) consortium
The VeriFish project aims to to develop a framework of verifiable sustainability indicators, a prototype app, and a EU Good Practice recommendation and will create and distribute a range of media products to be distributed for free among a selection of the VeriFish stakeholders, and run outreach campaigns to inform and promote these assets among these stakeholder groups, as well as raise consumers' awareness about how to “choose sustainable seafood” based on scientifically verifiable indicators.
Within this context, WP3 is designing and prototyping several easy-to-use media products including:
Flashcards and Board games: Educational tools for children and adults to promote ocean health and sustainable seafood choices. The goal is to communicate people about the importance of ocean health through sustainable seafood choices.
Maps and Calendars: Raising awareness about sustainability and supporting informed seafood choices.
Educational Posters: Educational posters about seafood . These posters will focus on sustainability topics and highlight the importance of supporting local providers.
Additional media products that will be developed by VeriFish are a children's recipe book created in collaboration with nutritionists and food experts, and the VeriFish Guidelines providing user communities and key stakeholders (i.e., policymakers) with guidelines on the use of verifiable seafood indicators to improve communications about their products. These are described in two dedicated deliverables (D2.3 Guideline for the use of seafood verifiable indicators [August 2025 and D3.8 VeriFish recipe book [January 2026]) and are not included in this deliverable.
This deliverable presents the preliminary list of requirements and specifications gathered during a series of meetings organised to explore needs and expectations.
This deliverable outlines the functional and technical specifications of the VeriFish Mobile App, designed to support transparent communication about sustainable seafood choices. It builds upon the sustainability indicator framework developed in WP2 and responds directly to the project's mission of enabling citizens, producers, retailers, and stakeholders across the seafood value chain to make informed consumption decisions. The VeriFish Mobile App translates complex datasets into an accessible digital product, integrating data on nutrition, sustainability, biodiversity, and provenance.
The design of the application is user-centric, informed by mock-ups and requirements gathered through a series of stakeholder workshops. The Mobile App will serve as an intuitive front-end to the underlying VeriFish Knowledge Base (KB), presenting FAIR data from sources such as GRSF, FishBase, and EuroFIR within a unified interface. Users will primarily access the system through existing GRSF QR codes, which serve as unique identifiers (UUIDs), enabling seamless linkage between stock-level information and value-added content such as food composition, recipes, and sustainability scores. Ultimately, the Mobile App will be one of the core media products of VeriFish, serving as a flagship tool for engaging a broad range of user groups—from informed consumers to seafood retailers—with verifiable, actionable knowledge.
This document details the system architecture, key components, APIs, data flows, and user interaction models.
VeriFish aims to offer a comprehensive framework of sustainability indicators, integrating data from trusted sources to assess environmental, social, and health-related factors in aquafood production, with the ultimate objective of allowing industry professionals and consumers alike to make informed decisions based on transparent, verifiable data.
This deliverable follows D2.1 - Indicator Framework Defined, which defined a comprehensive suite of indicators that might be used to assess and communicate sustainability in the aquafood sector, focusing on fisheries, aquaculture, and human health.
The indicator framework is built around three pillars, each addressing a critical dimension of sustainability to provide a holistic approach to assessing and communicating sustainability of aquafood. These pillars are: (a) Environmental, (b) Nutrition, and (c) Social and Economic, and serve as a backbone for sustainability assessment and communication.
In contrast, this deliverable focuses on: (a) practical application of these indicators (Section 2), and (b) data sources that can be used for implementation of the framework (Sections 3,4 and 5). More specifically, we catalogue and describe key data sources, detailing their coverage, and relevance, and explain access and processing of these data. Moreover, we map data sources to specific indicators, clarifying how each source contributes to describing sustainability across the different pillars. A matrix is also presented that aligns data sources with the indicators in the framework (Section 6). Overall, the final version of the framework comprises 84 indicators distributed across the three main pillars, each further categorised into specific sub-pillars. In addition, more than 35 relevant data sources have been identified and described to support the application and monitoring of these indicators.
The VeriFish initial recommendations for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood are designed to be a useful tool for the seafood industry when designing seafood campaigns with the aim of increasing seafood consumption.
This report (D4.1 – Initial Recommendation for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood) is linked to task 4.1, where input and experiences from WP2 and WP3, existing literature and knowledge on the issue is used to make an initial Good Practice recommendation on how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood and how to organise sustainable seafood consumption campaigns. Relevant communication strategies for consumer types, geographical areas, seafood types and media types, including characteristics of the products to highlight for different cases and how to present them are outlined.
Results from this will ultimately be published as a CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA), which may serve as a foundation for a potential future ISO standard. The upcoming CWA from WP4 of VeriFish builds on this document, the indicator framework developed in WP2, and the communication strategies documented in WP3.
Following the introduction, the report is structured to guide the reader through the development of recommendations on how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood. In chapter 2 Consumer types, different aspects related to communication towards different segments of seafood consumers are addressed and elaborated, including geographical considerations. Within chapter 3 Seafood types seafood is categorized into groups with the aim of both including all seafood, but also bearing in mind the possibility of reconciling them with different consumer types where it can be appropriate to communicate different information about seafood. Because of the aims and complexity in grouping seafood, there is also a section with rationale behind rejected seafood type categorizations to be found as appendix (chapter 8). In 4 Communication strategies some essential considerations when planning how to communicate information about seafood to different types of audience is elaborated. Ultimately in chapter 5 Recommendations a comprehensive table of initial VeriFish recommendations for how to efficiently communicate to consumers about seafood sums it all up with specific recommendations per consumer type and seafood type. In 6 Examples there are two case examples of how the table of recommendations in chapter 5 Recommendations can be used in practice. In addition, we tested the use of the ChatGPT 4.0 app from OpenAI as a tool to plan and execute a marketing campaign for a seafood product as a case. The purpose was to assess the quality and documentation of the AI-generated output.
This deliverable defines a comprehensive suite of indicators designed to assess and communicate sustainability in the aquafood sector, specifically focusing on capture fisheries, aquaculture, and nutrition. These indicators address critical dimensions of sustainability, environmental, and nutritional impacts, providing a measurable and evidence-based foundation for evaluating sustainability.
Fisheries indicators: A suite of 21 indicators has been identified to measure sustainability in capture fisheries. These indicators include stock status metrics such as BMSY (biomass at maximum sustainable yield) and FMSY (fishing mortality at maximum sustainable yield), which assess whether fish populations are harvested within ecological limits. Indicators for ecosystem impacts evaluate habitat disruption, trophic effects, and bycatch rates, with a particular focus on vulnerable or endangered species. Climate-related indicators, such as CO2 emissions per kilogram of landed catch, highlight the carbon footprint of fishing activities and the environmental impact of gear types. Additional metrics address governance, such as compliance with fisheries management plans and efforts to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. These indicators are critical for monitoring the health of fish stocks, minimising ecological harm, and ensuring long-term viability of marine resources.
Aquaculture indicators span a range of environmental, economic, and operational aspects, reflecting the complexity of this sector, as well as provide insights into the sustainability of aquaculture practices. Key metrics include feed efficiency, such as the food conversion ratio, and the use of wild-caught marine ingredients in feeds, which have implications for marine food webs. Indicators for waste and pollution, such as nutrient emissions and plastic reuse or recycling, assess the environmental footprint of aquaculture facilities. Habitat impact metrics evaluate site selection and potential alterations to surrounding ecosystems.Biosecurity measures, including antimicrobial use and disease management practices, reflect efforts to mitigate risks to animal health and productivity.
Nutrition indicators focus on the composition and health benefits of aquafoods. These include high-quality protein content, which is essential for muscle maintenance and overall health, and the presence of omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA, which support heart and brain health. Micronutrient indicators vitamins andminerals, such as vitamin D, selenium, and iodine, which are vital for immune function, bone health, and metabolic processes. The indicators also consider energy content, sodium, and the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats, reflecting the overall nutritional profile of aquafood. These metrics align with public health objectives, promoting aquafood as a nutrient-dense, potentially climate-friendly protein source.
The indicators provide a basis for a rigorous framework for evaluating sustainability across fisheries, aquaculture, and nutrition. They are grounded in scientifically validated methodologies and reflect key priorities such as biodiversity conservation, resource efficiency, and public health. By enabling the measurement and communication of sustainability in the aquafood sector, these indicators can support informed decision-making and foster a more sustainable future for this vital sector in Europe.
The VeriFish Communication and Editorial Plan aims to effectively disseminate project results and engage with stakeholders through various media channels. These live tools will ensure communication aligned with project activities and stakeholder needs.A co-ordinated 24-month Communication, Dissemination, Outreach and Education strategy under WP3 has been designed, built around specific communication and exploitation campaigns for raising awareness of the project, measurable results, overall scientific benefits and impacts, and measures for reaching end-users and other stakeholders.Key activities include designing a visual identity, developing a public website, executing social media, publishing newsletters and articles, creating educational and promotional media products, and organising events, such as the VeriFish conference. Regular monitoring through analytics tools, Google Analytics, will enable adjustments to optimise communication strategies. This comprehensive plan will ensure that all stakeholders can be informed and potentially engaged throughout the project lifecycle, maximising impact of project activities and outputs. This is the first version of the Communication plan (D3.1), which will be updated as needed during the project. Results arising from this Communication, Dissemination, Outreach and Education strategy will be reported in D3.6 Communication, stakeholder engagement final report (M24).
The VeriFish Communication and Editorial Plan aims to effectively disseminate project results and engage with stakeholders through various media channels. These live tools will ensure communication aligned with project activities and stakeholder needs. A co-ordinated 24-month Communication, Dissemination, Outreach and Education strategy under WP3 has been designed, built around specific communication and exploitation campaigns for raising awareness of the project, measurable results, overall scientific benefits and impacts, and measures for reaching end- users and other stakeholders. Key activities include designing a visual identity, developing a public website, executing social media, publishing newsletters and articles, creating educational and promotional media products, and organising events, such as the VeriFish conference. Regular monitoring through analytics tools, Google Analytics, will enable adjustments to optimise communication strategies. This comprehensive plan will ensure that all stakeholders can be informed and potentially engaged throughout the project lifecycle, maximising impact of project activities and outputs. This is the first version of the Communication plan (D3.1), which will be updated as needed during the project. Results arising from this Communication, Dissemination, Outreach and Education strategy will be reported in D3.6 Communication, stakeholder engagement final report (M24).
Trust IT Services, EUROFISH International Organization
The document outlines the launch of the VeriFish project, which commenced in Brussels on 14 May 2024. Funded by the Horizon Europe programme under the "Choose your fish: a campaign for responsible consumption of products from the sea" call, VeriFish aims to enhance the communication of sustainable seafood consumption through a comprehensive indicator framework. This framework will provide verifiable sustainability indicators, integrating data from various sources such as FAO Global Record of Stocks and Fisheries and FISHBASE. The project will develop a prototype web application, media products, and recommendations for stakeholders, including retailers and the hospitality sector, to improve understanding and promote responsible seafood consumption. Additionally, the project will produce educational materials for diverse audiences, including children. VeriFish is a collaborative effort involving eight international partners and will run for 24 months, concluding in April 2026.
Uploaded on August 02, 2024
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David Bassett
Employed by EATiP since 2017, David is responsible for the day-to-day management and direction of this European wide multi-actor ETP.
Working in the aquaculture industry since 2005, including a decade as the executive of a UK producer association, he has been active in numerous projects from the sixth Framework Programme. Among other roles, David has served as a director of the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum and served on the Technical Advisory Group of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC TAG) alongside being invited as a guest lecturer at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling (UK).
In addition to working on multiple Horizon Europe projects David is one of the Technical Experts assisting with the implementation of the EU Aquaculture Assistance Mechanism in addition to chairing the research focus group of the Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) and sitting on the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research – Fish Committee (SCAR-Fish).
For further information on EATiP please see www.eatip.eu
Paul Bulcock
Paul Bulcock is responsible for developing and maintaining aquaculture information in SFP’s systems (e.g., FishSource, AIP Directory, Metrics). He also supports development and implementation of aquaculture strategy through research and analysis.
Paul has extensive program support and aquaculture research experience (particularly in Southeast Asia), having worked for the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and DFID’s Aquaculture and Fish Genetics Research Programme (AFGRP) at the Institute of Aquaculture, in Stirling, UK. He has an MSc in aquaculture from the University of Stirling and a BSc in marine and fisheries zoology from the University of Aberdeen.
Paul is based in the UK, in Glasgow, Scotland.
Fabio Grati
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.
Andrea Fabris
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 Marie Cooper
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.
Pedro Reis Santos
Pedro Reis Santos is Secretary General of the Market Advisory Council (MAC), a stakeholder-led advisory body to the European Commission and to the Member States on matters relevant for the EU market of fishery and aquaculture products, as foreseen by the Common Fisheries Policy Regulation.
Before his appointment, in July 2019, as Secretary General, Mr Reis Santos worked as a consultant for a Brussels-based business intelligence service monitoring EU developments on fisheries, agriculture, food, animal welfare, alcohol and tobacco policy. Prior to that, he was a trainee at the Fisheries Unit of the Council of the European Union and a trainee at the Control Unit of the Portuguese Fisheries Authority.
Mr Reis Santos holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in International Law and International Relations from the University of Lisbon with a thesis titled “Marine Protected Areas beyond National Jurisdiction”. Besides his first language, Portuguese, he speaks English and Spanish
Irene Kranendonk
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.
