Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) and GDST Standards
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What is it?
The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) became a fully legally independent organization in October 2022 and is an international, business-to-business platform established in 2017 to create the first-ever global industry standards for seafood traceability.
More than 60 companies and associations participated in the GDST’s consensus-based drafting process, with strong participation from around the world, across the supply chain, and at all enterprise sizes. The GDST was convened and facilitated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT).
Participants can access non-public dialogue events such as future processes to update or expand the GDST Standard.
- Inconsistent demands for information coming from governments, NGOs, retailers, or other downstream companies that lead to confusion, higher compliance costs, and lower motivation among producers; and,
- Incompatible digital information management systems, resulting from a large number of uncoordinated traceability solutions and solution vendors.
- Standards identifying the minimum data elements that need to be documented and transmitted within GDST-compliant seafood supply chains. These cover both wild-capture and aquaculture products; and,
- Standards governing the technical formats and nomenclatures for sharing data among interoperable traceability systems.
- Key Data Elements (KDE);
- Critical Tracking Events (CTE); and,
- The formal characteristics (definitions, data formatting options, links to GS1 Core Business Vocabulary, etc.)
- KDEs, CTEs, and EPCIS Technical Data for Event Identification for Wild Caught Seafood; and,
- KDEs, CTEs, and EPCIS Technical Data for Event Identification for Aquaculture.
What is it?
The GDST standard was built as an extension of the international traceability standard known as GS1 EPCIS which is widely used by major retailers, brands, and supply chains.
It aims to create an industry-led standard to provide interoperability and increased verifiability for all seafood traceability systems and responds to two major obstacles:
The standards have two main parts:
The GDST Core Normative Standards outline the following components that must be standardized in the construction of GDST-compliant Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) data files.
The standards therefore contain:
The scope of the GDST’s mandate for aquaculture currently does not extend to traceability for non-fish sources of feed. Although it does require the identification of the feed mill.
However, if feed protein originates from wild-caught origins, it must also follow the requirements of traceability detailed for wild-caught seafood.
Standards and Guidance – here