Aquaculture Stewardship Council™ (ASC™) is an international, independent and non-profit organization, created with the aim of developing and managing a certification program for responsible aquaculture.

The ASC certification is the main certification scheme for responsible aquaculture internationally. The ASC certification program is based on standards that establish stringent requirements that encourage fish farms to minimize the major environmental and social impacts of aquaculture. The current 11 ASC standards cover 17 groups of fish species: abalone, bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters, scallops), flat fish, freshwater trout, pangasius, salmon, sea bass, sea bream, lean, yellowtail and cobia, shrimp, tilapia, and tropical sea fish. There is also a joint ASC-MSC standard for algae. There is also a joint ASC-MSC standard for algae.

ASC chain of custody system guarantees the traceability of fish products along the entire handling, processing and distribution chain of the product. All companies in the chain intending to handle or sell ASC certified products must have Chain of Custody certification. ASC (for responsible aquaculture) and MSC (for sustainable fisheries) certification schemes share the same chain of custody standard. This allows companies to manage a double certification in a convenient and practical way by following the rules of a single Standard.

Thanks to the chain of custody, the final product can be labelled and consumers can choose responsibly farmed fish products with the ASC logo.

ASC sets standards for the industry to meet, including environmental and social goals that fish farms must meet in order to become certified and be able to bear the ASC logo on their products However, the ASC has no role in the certification process, which is a third-party system. Vireo is an independent certification body accredited by ASI (Assurance Services International) to conduct audits and issue ASC certificates (ASI-ACC-086).