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About the SCA

We exist to make seafood honesty a verifiable standard.

The Seafood Consumer Association (SCA) is an independent, consumer-first organisation built on one belief: that every person who buys seafood deserves to know exactly what they are buying β€” where it came from, what species it is, and how it was caught or farmed.

Who We Are

An independent voice for the world's seafood consumers.

Seafood is the most fraud-prone food category on earth. One in five products globally doesn't match its label. Frozen prawns can be 40% water by weight. "Fish of the day" hides whatever is cheapest at the back of the freezer. And the food-safety systems the industry leans on β€” HACCP, audit checklists, country-of-origin declarations β€” answer the wrong question first. I-CADMUS asks it first: is this product even what it claims to be?

The SCA was established to give consumers, industry operators, and regulators a single shared language for seafood fraud. Seven categories. One taxonomy. Built from decades of real supply-chain experience, not theoretical risk modelling.

Food safety has to start with truth in labelling. You cannot make safe what you cannot even identify.

The framework is paired with the book Sea of Deception, an online certification programme, an open-data publications register, and a growing network of academic and industry partners β€” beginning with Bond University and expanding to one institutional partner per country.

Why now

Three forces are converging: DNA verification has become affordable enough for routine use, traceability technology has matured, and consumer trust in food labelling has reached a generational low. The next decade will be shaped by whoever provides the framework β€” and the language β€” to act. I-CADMUS is that framework.

Founder & CEO

Hon Prof Roy Palmer, MBA β€” five decades across the global supply chain.

Hon Prof Roy Palmer, MBA
Hon Prof Roy Palmer, MBA (2026) Founder & CEO, Seafood Consumer Association Ltd Author, Sea of Deception (July 2026) LinkedIn Profile β†’

Hon Prof Roy Palmer is Founder and CEO of the Seafood Consumers Association (SCA) and a former senior consumer behaviour expert for the UN FAO, specialising in seafood fraud prevention and consumption strategies. His career spans more than five decades across the global seafood supply chain β€” specifically in post-harvest seafood β€” including work as an Accredited Trainer and Diploma holder in Seafood Processing, and as the inaugural winner of the Australian Seafood Training Award.

Palmer has worked for the Mexican Government on successfully boosting national seafood consumption and developed FAO strategies for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has engaged with numerous industry and government boards and committees across three continents, bringing a uniquely operational perspective to food-integrity policy.

I-CADMUS is the distillation of that experience. After analysing the same seven categories of fraud appearing repeatedly across markets, supply chains, and decades β€” under different names, with different cover stories β€” Palmer set out to help educate consumers, provide industry with a single classifier, and offer a soft-governance alternative for regulators. The I-CADMUS framework is the result.

His book, Sea of Deception (Seafood Consumer Association, July 2026), documents those patterns in detail β€” with case studies, investigative findings, and a policy playbook for legislators who want to close the gap.

Selected appointments & honours

  • Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Seafood Consumer Association Ltd, Australia
  • Profesor Honorario β€” Universidad TecnolΓ³gica del Mar de Tamaulipas Bicentenario, Mexico
  • Honorary Life Award β€” World Aquaculture Society (WAS)
  • Medal of Honor β€” World Gastronomy Institute (WGI)
  • Founder β€” Association of International Seafood Professionals
  • Former Senior Consumer Behaviour Expert, UN FAO (seafood fraud prevention & consumption strategies)
  • Author, Sea of Deception (Seafood Consumer Association, July 2026)

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The Policy Playbook

Five pillars every seafood jurisdiction should adopt.

Each fraud type in the I-CADMUS taxonomy has a corresponding policy lever. These five pillars form the minimum viable playbook for any regulator or legislator working on seafood integrity.

Pillar 01

Mandatory Naming

End 'fish of the day,' ambiguous trade names, and generic species descriptors. Adopt AS 5300 or an equivalent naming standard at every point of sale β€” from restaurant menus to retail labels.

Pillar 02

DNA Verification

Routine, affordable species verification at customs, processing, and retail. Field-deployable DNA testing and handheld XRF scanning are no longer experimental β€” the technology is ready. The political will is the gap.

Pillar 03

Real Penalties

Fines that exceed the margin gained by fraud. Repeat offences trigger trading suspensions and licence revocations. Without meaningful consequence, classification is theatre.

Pillar 04

Supply-Chain Transparency

End-to-end traceability from vessel to plate. QR-linked catch records that cannot be retroactively edited. Open auditability at every node of the supply chain.

Pillar 05

Consumer Rights

The legal right to know what species you are buying, where it came from, and how it was harvested β€” protected in law and enforceable in court, not aspirational.

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The full playbook

All five pillars are detailed in Sea of Deception, with implementation case studies, draft legislative language, and country-by-country gap analysis.

Get the book β†’

How We Got Here

A timeline of the SCA and the I-CADMUS framework.

1970s

Roy Palmer enters the seafood industry

Beginning a career spanning working boats, processing floors, retail operations, and peak industry bodies β€” accumulating the lived experience the I-CADMUS framework would later be drawn from.

2001

AS 5300 Australian Fish Names Standard

A landmark multi-year campaign to introduce mandatory species-naming standards across Australian seafood retail. The work surfaces systemic gaps that I-CADMUS would later formalise.

2018

Seafood Consumer Association Founded

An independent body established to advocate for transparency, accuracy, and integrity in seafood labelling β€” answerable to consumers, not to industry incumbents.

2023

I-CADMUS Framework Drafted

The seven-category taxonomy is formalised after years of pattern-matching across investigations, supply-chain audits, regulatory submissions, and case-study work across multiple jurisdictions.

2025

Bond University Academic Partnership

Bond University becomes the inaugural academic partner, leading research and certification delivery. The 'one institutional partner per country' expansion model is established.

2026

Sea of Deception Published Β· Framework Launches Publicly

The framework, the book, the certification programme, and the open-data publications register go live together β€” the public culmination of more than a decade of preparation.

What We Do

From taxonomy to action.

The SCA operates across four interconnected workstreams, each designed to make the I-CADMUS framework useful at a different point in the supply chain.

F
Framework

The I-CADMUS Taxonomy

A seven-category classification system covering every known form of seafood fraud β€” from IUU laundering and species substitution to adulteration, dilution, and origin misrepresentation. The lingua franca of seafood integrity.

Explore the framework β†’
C
Certification

I-CADMUS Certification

An online certification programme for operators, auditors, and foodservice professionals who need a verifiable credential in seafood integrity. Delivered in partnership with Bond University.

Get certified β†’
R
Research

Publications & Evidence

An open-data register of case studies, whitepapers, and investigation findings β€” cross-referenced to the I-CADMUS taxonomy and freely accessible to regulators, journalists, and researchers.

Browse resources β†’
A
Advocacy

Policy & Consumer Voice

Regulatory submissions, media briefings, and consumer-facing tools that translate the I-CADMUS taxonomy into policy language and purchasing decisions. 26 million voices. One seafood future.

Read our news β†’

Want to partner with us or learn more?

If you are a university, retailer, regulator, or processor interested in adopting I-CADMUS or joining the partner network, we'd like to hear from you.

Get in touch β†’ View partners