SFS Technologies (formerly Seafood Souq) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have completed a digital interoperability pilot under MSC’s Traceability Enhancement Program (TEP), testing the automated exchange and verification of Chain of Custody data between MSC’s TEP digital verification tool and SFS Technologies’ traceability platform.
The pilot, run between January–August 2026, is part of MSC’s broader effort to embed standardised, interoperable digital traceability into future iterations of its Chain of Custody (CoC) certification program — the assurance system that verifies MSC ecolabeled products come from a certified fishery. Built on the Global Dialogue for Seafood Traceability (GDST) interoperability standard and GS1’s EPCIS 2.0 data framework, MSC’s TEP tool is designed to verify samples of Critical Tracking Event and Key Data Element data supplied by GDST-capable technology providers like SFS Technologies, without MSC operating as a central data repository.
Using live shipment data gathered by SFS Trace, the pilot successfully tested registration, information requests, and automated data checks across shipping and receiving events, capturing eight product batches and completing 208 individual data verification checks. The exercise also surfaced technical refinements, including adjustments to location and business-step filtering and date-range parameters, that MSC is incorporating into the tool ahead of further pilots.
The shipment data used in the pilot traces back to SFS Technology’s wider partnership with ICV Africa, where SFS e-logbook technology (co-developed between ICV and SFS) is deployed directly on vessels. It was this vessel-to-platform data chain, captured at source rather than logged retrospectively, that allowed complete data to flow through the supply chain. ICV Africa, an MSC-certified fishery and SFS traceability partner, points to what’s possible for the future of traceability across the industry.
MSC has run approximately nine technology pilots over the past two years as part of TEP, working toward a voluntary launch of the enhanced digital pathway with GDST-capable partners. The program is intended to complement MSC’s existing third-party audit model, with verified digital data eventually supporting a more risk-based approach to on-site auditing for certificate holders with consistent, clean data records.
Júlia Costa is a Marketing Executive at SFS Technologies.