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- Property & Status: ASC certificates remain the legal property of your Conformity Assessment Body (CAB).
- Immediate Cease-of-Claims: If your certificate is suspended, cancelled, or withdrawn, all rights to use the ASC logo, claims, and trademarks cease immediately; continued display is treated as trad
- Supply Chain Transparency: All certification decisions—including negative outcomes—are published on the ASC website, and customers must be notified of potential claim impacts.
Maintaining an active ASC Feed Certification is essential for providing certified aquafeed to seafood producers globally. However, operational disruptions, audit non-conformities, or strategic business changes can alter a Unit of Certification’s (UoC) status.
To help quality managers and executive teams navigate these situations smoothly, this guide breaks down the definitions, immediate obligations, and recovery steps associated with Suspension, Cancellation, and Withdrawal.
1. Defining the Three Status Changes
- Suspension (Temporary Freeze): A suspension is an administrative or technical pause placed on a certificate by your Conformity Assessment Body (CAB). It typically occurs when major non-conformities remain unclosed past established deadlines, required audit access is denied, or contractual obligations are breached. During a suspension, the certificate validity cycle is paused, but the facility remains subject to baseline tracking requirements (such as maintaining Due Diligence reviews for incoming ingredients).
- Cancellation (Voluntary Exit): A cancellation is a voluntary, business-led decision initiated by the feed mill management to exit the ASC certification scheme.
- Withdrawal (Permanent Revocation): A withdrawal is a permanent termination of the certificate by the CAB. This is triggered if a facility fails to resolve the root causes of a suspension within the set timeframe or in cases of severe compliance breaches.
2. Immediate Rules for Sales, Marketing, and Logo Usage
The moment a certificate status changes to suspended, cancelled, or withdrawn, strict trademark and sales rules take effect:
- Cease ASC Claims Immediately: The feed mill must immediately stop selling, dispatching, or describing feed as ASC-conforming (under both the Segregation and Mass Balance production models).
- Halt Logo and Trademark Display: Only active, valid certificate holders who have executed a signed Feed Licensing Agreement are authorized to display the ASC logo or rely on ASC claims on packaging or marketing materials. Continued use during suspension, cancellation, or post-withdrawal constitutes a trademark infringement.
- Physical Labeling & Invoicing: Any feed dispatched during a suspension or post-cancellation/withdrawal cannot carry the ASC Site ID number or allowable feed claims on physical bags, bulk transport documentation, or sales invoices.
- Public Reporting: All certification statuses and audit findings—including negative decisions—are updated publicly on the official ASC database for global verification.
- Customer Communication: The feed mill must notify impacted customers and farm applicants in writing if a status change affects the validity of feed claims or received product lots.
- Lifting a Suspension: A suspension does not require restarting the entire 3-year certification cycle. Once the CAB verifies through objective evidence or a follow-up audit that all underlying non-conformities have been closed, the suspension is formally lifted in the ASC database, and standard surveillance or recertification audits resume.
- Re-applying After Withdrawal: If a certificate is withdrawn, the mill is removed from the scheme. Re-entry requires waiting out the mandatory cooling-off period established by the CAB/ASC and undergoing a full, initial third-party assessment from scratch.
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