Safer food on our tables, easier exports of K-seafood: GDST joins six Korean and international partners to launch the ‘Seafood Digital Passport’
The Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) will provide the technical backbone for a new seafood traceability initiative in Korea, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with six other domestic and international organisations to build a safe seafood ecosystem and expand it globally. The agreement, signed on 16 July at the KAIST AutoID Lab Busan Innovation Research Centre, brings GDST together with the AutoID Lab (Professor Kim Dae-young, Department of Computer Science), Pusan National University’s Better Process Control School (BPCS), the Marine Stewardship Council Korea Office (MSC Korea), the Aquaculture Stewardship Council Korea Office (ASC Korea), international non-profit Ocean Outcomes, and data specialist firm DataSpira.
At the centre of the MoU is GDST’s traceability standard, which the partners describe as a ‘digital passport’ for seafood: a common framework for recording and exchanging the data that must travel with a product from the moment it leaves the sea to the moment it reaches the dinner table. Under the agreement, the partners will link the GDST standard with MSC and ASC sustainable seafood certifications, and combine it with the internationally recognised GS1 identification and information-sharing standards, so that companies can manage both food-safety data and eco-certification data within a single, interoperable system — easing the burden on Korean seafood processors and exporters who currently submit the same information to multiple bodies separately.
The initiative responds to a global market that increasingly wants to know not just the taste and price of seafood, but where it was produced and how it was processed and transported, according to organisers. A number of major US retailers and buyers already require traceability information compliant with the GDST standard for tuna imported from South Korea for sashimi, and under the US Food and Drug Administration’s FSMA Section 204 food traceability rule, companies handling products such as tuna will need to retain and be able to promptly produce key production, processing, transport and sale records from 20 July 2028 — a requirement organisers say Korean seafood exporters need to prepare for now by aligning with GDST-based systems.
“The aim of this collaboration is to provide the public with seafood they can choose with confidence, and to support companies in obtaining a certificate of digital trust that is recognised in overseas markets,” Professor Kim Dae-young, Director of the Busan Innovation Research Centre at KAIST’s AutoID Lab, said. “Together with the central government, local authorities and companies in the fisheries sector, we will launch a pilot project in Busan to enhance the export competitiveness of our fisheries companies and achieve tangible results that strengthen international trust in K-Food.”
The technical foundation for GDST-aligned data exchange is already in place: KAIST AutoID Lab’s OLIOPASS and DataSpira’s SCAN4DATA AI have both obtained global certification to record and exchange information in line with the GDST standard across the seafood supply chain. Building on the MoU, the partners plan to pilot these GDST-compliant technologies within real seafood supply chains and assess their practical applicability and potential for international integration in phases.
The organisations plan to use Busan, a hub of Korea’s fisheries industry, as a global pilot site for GDST adoption, rolling out projects in phases starting with deep-sea tuna for sashimi, laver, seaweed and related processed products, and covering the full chain from fishing and aquaculture through processing, logistics, export, distribution and consumption. Results from the pilots are expected to feed into the export operations of Korean companies before being extended to international distribution networks and cooperation frameworks such as the FAO and APEC — further embedding GDST as the common standard underpinning the effort.
Organisers say the collaboration should benefit both exporters and consumers: fisheries companies will find it easier to prepare documentation meeting overseas regulatory and buyer requirements by adopting the GDST standard, helping expand export opportunities, while domestic consumers will be able to trace distribution channels and causes more quickly in the event of a food-safety incident. As standardised, GDST-compliant data accumulates, organisers also expect it could be used in AI services that predict quality defects or distribution risks in advance.