Finger Lakes Fish Inc., a new land-based salmon farming operation in Auburn, New York, is one of the first salmon farms in the world to receive a Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification, Phil Gibson, a board member and the company’s marketing advisor, told IntraFish.

"You have to go through a process by a third-party similar to what you do with an environmental certification," he said. "There are set requirements you have to pass. The inspector will go through your record-keeping, your safety practices, your HACCP plan, and make sure you're in compliance with all of that."

The farm is raising coho salmon in a 43,000-square-foot recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), and is currently selling the fish into white tablecloth restaurants in the New York, he said.

Gibson did not give a specific production level for the company, but said it expects to produce 400 metric tons a year when construction is completed on its facility.

Last October Finger Lakes earned the world’s first recirculating aquaculture system technology (RAS) coho salmon farm to be awarded the Global Aquaculture Alliance's (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.

The farm hatched its first eggs in April 2018 and began selling its first batch of fish in September of last year.

The SQF Institute is a division of Arlington, Virginia-based Food Industry Association.

Aquaculture

NY land-based coho salmon farm achieves safety certification