SFS Trace — Dive into the story of your Seafood

Over the past year there’s been an industry wide push for traceability in the Seafood sector for many good intentions; encouraging more sustainable practices, food safety, transparency for buyers/end consumers and to avoid mislabelling to name just a few. (If you haven’t already read it, one of our previous blogs ‘I’ve been eating what?!’ details some of the astounding statistics on these items.)

As one of the most globally traded commodities and with Seafood consumption in the UAE being one of the highest in the world; lack of traceability is a problem worth tackling.

When it comes to Seafood we want to provide traceability all the way to the end consumer.

Which is why we’re pleased to announce the launch of — SFS Trace.

Seafood Souq Trace was created in line with our core values of;

Choice — SFS Trace gives Buyers detailed information on products like never before; so they can choose what’s best for their business or fits with their personal preference when it comes to sourcing Seafood. Not only does this help Chef’s to source reliably but they can pass on this choice to the consumer by offering menu options of 100% traceable Seafood that come with detailed information rather than just a country of origin to compare.

For example, on a menu today a normal option to see would be Norwegian vs Scottish Salmon, whereas now you can take your choices a step further with options like “All natural, Hand-reared Sustainable Scottish Salmon” vs “Organic Sustainable Scottish Salmon vs ‘Wild caught Pacific Salmon”.

Value — If you are paying the extra cost for an Organic or Premium product with SFS Trace you are guaranteed to actually get the value that you are paying for; with no danger of mislabelling and receiving an incorrect product as it’s 100% traceable from source to kitchen.

Traceability — As the name implies, SFS Trace is our stamp of approval for 100% traceability. We want to encourage traceability throughout the entire supply chain and hope that chefs, restaurant owners etc. will make this information available to the end consumer too, so they can make healthy, sustainable choices when ordering Seafood dishes.

Transparency — We are incredibly committed to facilitating transparency in the Seafood industry. We want to allow buyers and end consumers to dive deep into the story of their Seafood so that informed product choices can be made; whether you are looking at it from a Sustainably sourced angle or just wanting to be safe in the knowledge that you are serving a healthy product. Through SFS trace you get complete visibility on the origin of your product, capture or aquaculture methods, processing details, Supplier information and the tracking of the shipment from Sea to B. We believe that this is a step in the right direction for better Seafood sourcing by making this information transparent and easily available.

As a Tech first company we are excited to use the efficiencies that technology brings to provide the service of SFS Trace for the products purchased through Seafood Souq.

Upon delivery of a Seafood Souq order Chefs/ Restaurant owners can simply scan a QR code that will take them to the SFS Trace page, and give them detailed insight into the product and a timeline of its production and shipment. This code can then be added to menus or next to items on display to pass on the same information to the consumer.

Product Manager at Seafood Souq Hameed Al Beiruty has taken lead on the SFS Trace project;

“It is really important to find ways where technology can make a difference; especially when it comes to something that has the most impact on our lives, food. The intention behind SFS trace is to make information more accessible and more centralised with the hopes that we create a core place where traceability information can be collected and viewed by both businesses and the end consumer giving detailed information about the food they are eating from the moment it was harvested, to the point of delivery, to the Chef preparing it.

We are working with many Vendors around the world to better integrate SFS trace into the supply chain and our hope is to one day have it available for all food products people consume so we can farm more sustainably, transport more greenly and eat healthier’