Northseafood your leading European fish company, fully vertical integrated

In our fully certified factories the caught fresh fish from the Quotter fleet is processed.
Under strict quality control into a tasteful easy to prepare product. From catch till plate, as a one stop shop.

Direct after the fresh fish arrives at NorthSeaFood, the quality is checked and graded in order guarantee our customers the correct gradings. 
 

After inspection the fish is in line filleted by machine, if required de-skinned and fully trimmed, as agreed.

At NorthSeaFood we also have the opportunity to do the filleting manually. Filleting of species less suitable for machine-filleting is done by hand through well experienced colleagues. 

Immediately after grading and filleting the fish is stored in the cold store again, waiting to be frozen within minutes on our freezing belts.

With our freezing belts the products core is frozen very quick, to lock in flavor and remain the structure.

With our plate freezer we do freeze fillets, fish and squid in if required, interleaved blocks. The block weight varies from 250g for our retail customers up to 3 kg for the foodservice customers. Products packed like this are very easy to defrost.

In one production flow at the freezing belts, we glaze the fillets or fish with a protective layer of ice, as per mutually agreed specification.

Because of the glazing the product is well protected during distribution and storage.

On one of our breading lines we coat the fillets with a nice crispy layer of breading. Together with our customer brought to flavor by adding spices and herbs. The product is now suited for panfrying or deep frying.

Apart from traditional breading we also have the option to bread and pre-fry the product on our pre-frying production line. Using pure vegetable oil and if demanded special toasted crumbs for an extra crunchy bite. The fillets are now suited for preparation in the oven, pan, deep fryer or grill plate. 

At NorthSeaFood we have a so called ‘Mugnaia” production line. Dusting the fillets with a thin layer of flour, together with pure lemon juice, spices and herbs. We can even glaze it with pure real butter. Preparation of this product like the fishermen and millers have done for decades, in the pan or at the grill.

Steam Delight is a unique production process of NorthSeaFood. We are topping our fillets with different taste profiles. The topping base e.g. can be real butter, cheese or olive oil, enriched with vegetables, spices and herbs.

This ready to use product is packed in a steam foil, for preparation in oven and microwave. Within minutes form frozen a chef cook signature product on your plate.

The frozen fish and fillets are being packed under private-label or under our own brand Deliz. For the retail market we produce among others, wet-pack interleaved and IQF products in folding boxes, trays, flow packs or polybags. For the Foodservice, catering and industry we produce exactly calibrated products in boxes or bags varying from 3 kilo up to 300 kilogram.

At Northseafood, quality and sustainability are a concept in order to let the next generation enjoy honest and delicious fish in the future.

We deliver quality products that meet the wishes of our customers and the strictest food safety standards: Our company has been certified for many years for IFS and BRC both. These standards, the international Featured Standards and the British Retail Consortium - a British retailers' trade association - are among the strictest in the food industry.

The audits for this standards are performed annually by an independent certification body.

Northseafood policy
To be successful in the industry, we as Northseafood have a transparent policy with quality of paramount importance. To achieve this we have four basic principles: Planet, People, Product and Profit.

Northseafood has been certified according to BRC's and IFS two strictest food safety standards for many years.
Northseafood is also certified for processing organic fish and sustainably caught (MSC) and sustainably farmed (ASC) fish products.

Northseafood supplies high-quality food products, both in technical terms and in terms of nutritional value, so that we meet the needs of our customers and the expectations of consumers. In terms of technical quality, our products meet the agreed specifications. In terms of nutritional quality, we guarantee that our fish and fish products are good sources of high-quality proteins, important minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids.

Northseafood has been certified for various quality requirements and sustainability requirements. On this page you can download a copy of our certificates to use for your quality system.

Northseafood knows better than anyone how important it is to handle fish stocks and nature carefully. Fish is therefore also purchased as much as possible from ships that use sustainable fishing techniques. Often also provided with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificate. In addition to sustainably caught fish, Northseafood is also certified for the production and sale of sustainably farmed fish according to ASC. (Aquaculture Stewardship Council).

Sustainable fishing and responsible farming

Many fish species that are processed at Northseafood come from certified sustainable catch with the MSC label or from responsible farming with the ASC label. Our product offering includes a wide range of products that are certified to independent standards for responsible farming and sustainable capture, such as ASC and MSC.

MSC - Marine Stewardship Council - is an independent certification that guarantees that the fish has been caught sustainably.

MSC's goal is to protect the oceans and to ensure that there is enough fish for current and future generations.

ASC - Aquaculture Stewardship Council - is an independent quality mark for responsibly farmed fish, crustaceans and shellfish. Fish with the ASC quality mark comes from nurseries that limit their influence on water, nature and the environment, take good care of their employees and take local residents into account.

Northseafood is also certified for organic fish. Organic fish is farmed with respect for animal welfare and the environment. Just to name a few of the requirements: an organic fish lives in clean water, has enough space to swim, eats mainly organic fish food and must not be given artificial hormones to spawn.

In addition, origin and other relevant data are carefully stated on all our articles for good and fast tracing in case of questions about the delivered products.

The main challenge for global food production is the limited availability of natural resources such as production areas, fresh water and energy. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions will also have to be reduced.

Leading the Blue Revolution

Seas and oceans offer the best opportunity to meet the growing demand for healthy and sustainable food. Our planet is 70% water, but only 2% of the world's food supply comes from the ocean. Nevertheless, we must also take into account that these sources are not inexhaustible. If we want to ensure that future generations can also enjoy a delicious piece of fish, we must invest in sustainable fishing and fish farming: Leading the Blue Revolution is therefore the vision of Northseafood.

Fish is one of the most efficient sources of animal protein: far less feed is required to produce 1 kg of edible fish than to produce the same amount of meat.

Fish has a significantly smaller ecological footprint than meat.

Northseafood minimizes the impact of its activities on nature and the environment and operates in harmony with the environment, by not depleting natural resources and taking care not to use materials or substances that can cause permanent damage. Northseafood has its own water purification plant, which purifies all the water used for production and cleaning before it reaches the water purification station in Tollebeek.

The Northseafood factories are insulated in such a way that virtually no ambient noise is produced. A further reduction of energy consumption and of the ecological footprint is also an explicit objective of Northseafood. Our installations are regularly inspected and certified.

Northseafood uses solar panels to reduce energy consumption. This results in us being able to use the generated energy for both factories.

Superheaters are installed on the cooling / freezing installations with the aim of reducing energy consumption.

The residual heat from the cooling / freezing process preheats the water for cleaning.

Northseafood has started sponsoring the Fishing For Litter project from KIMO since 2020. Our ships from the Quotter fleet are also directly involved in this project. The waste they fish out of the sea is brought weekly to the shore. The link to the website of KIMO is: https://www.kimonederlandbelgie.org/projecten-2/fishing-for-litter/

One of our starting points is "People".

Protecting the safety, health and human rights of our employees is a core value for Northseafood. We want to ensure safe and meaningful work for our employees.

To operate successfully and to maintain good relationships with the local communities in which we operate, the safety, self-esteem and personal pride of our people must never be in question.

We believe it is important that the companies from which we buy our fish are good for their employees and respect their employees' rights. This is expressed, among other things, by meeting the criteria of the SMETA (Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit) 4-Pillar.

SMETA 4-Pillar has been developed by the AIM (Association des Industries Marque) to go beyond the requirements of the standard SMETA audit, one of the most widely used methods to audit companies for ethical criteria.

SMETA 4-Pillars is a collaborative audit model that emphasizes the environment and business integrity.

SMETA 4-Pillars has been approved by the members of AIM Progress, a growing group of consumer goods manufacturers. The SMETA 4-Pillars methodology uses the ETI code and local legislation as a benchmark and consists of 4 modules:

• Health and safety (ETI)
• Labor standards (ETI)
• Environment
• Business ethics