More than half of the fish we eat worldwide now comes from aquaculture. According to the FAO’s SOFIA 2026 report, aquaculture production surpassed 100 million tonnes for the first time in 2024, 53% of all aquatic animal production worldwide. With a sector of this scale, one question becomes increasingly relevant: what is the environmental impact of producing fish? And how is it measured?

The answer is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It’s a methodology that adds up all the impacts of a product, from start to finish: the feed, the energy used in production, transport, packaging. Instead of opinions, it delivers numbers. And in aquaculture, those numbers hold a few surprises.

Europe is tightening the rules against greenwashing

For now, no law requires a company to carry out an LCA. But from 27 September 2026, a new European directive will ban vague claims such as “sustainable” or “environmentally friendly” on products unless they are backed by recognised evidence. At the same time, the European Commission has approved harmonised rules for calculating and communicating the environmental footprint of fish, based precisely on LCA.

In practice, anyone who wants to claim their fish is more sustainable will have to prove it and LCA is one of the most credible and widely recognised ways to do so.

More than just compliance

For producers, an LCA is above all a decision-making tool: it shows where the problem really lies (in the feed? the energy? the transport?) and where it’s worth investing. It makes it possible to test whether an alternative feed or a more circular production model actually pays off. And it gives companies with solid data an advantage others don’t have: the ability to communicate their environmental performance with confidence.

The role of B2E CoLAB

B2E CoLAB helps blue bioeconomy companies do exactly this: measure the impact of their products rigorously, interpret the results, and turn them into decisions — and into communication that complies with the new European rules.

This was precisely the work carried out with the Soja de Portugal group, a national reference in aquafeed production. Together, the LCA methodology was applied to their products, mapping environmental impacts across the entire chain, from raw materials to the final product. The result? A clear view of where the critical points and improvement opportunities lie, and a solid data foundation that allows the group to substantiate its environmental communication with rigour. It’s the difference between saying you’re sustainable and being able to demonstrate it.