Common certification seals found on food products can help you make healthier and more sustainable food choices!
While many of us breeze over the certification seals and other information found on food labels, these symbols can actually tell us a whole lot about the impact of a given product.
Here we’re going to hone in on food product certifications. These seals actually illustrate that the food brand has voluntarily undergone stringent third-party verification to show its commitment to a certain set of standards. These could be related to human health, animal health, ingredient production and processing, social impact, or environmental impact.
Follow along as we explore a handful of certifications that demonstrate a brand’s pledge to sustainable nutrition from a social, environmental, and health perspective (to learn more about what sustainable nutrition is click here!). These include B Corp, Fair Trade, USDA Organic, Regenerative Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.
Certified B Corporation
B Corp, or certified B corporation, is one common food seal that illustrates a brand’s dedication to sustainable practices. This is exemplified through the certification’s stringent requirements for participating companies to engage in social and environmental initiatives.
To obtain this certification, companies must pass the B Impact Assessment, which analyzes the social and environmental impact of the business on all stakeholders (from farmers and processors to distributors and retailers) against a set standard. It also requires companies to disclose all controversial operations to B Corp for assessment.
Fair Trade Certified
Fair trade is another popular certification found on food packaging across the nation. This seal shows potential buyers that the food brand in question is devoted to upholding improved worker conditions, fair compensation, and environmental protections.
This is thanks to Fair Trade’s strict qualifications including safe and healthy working conditions, no forced or child labor, fair and consistent worker compensation, various environmental protections, and product traceability. Fair Trade also give participants access to Community Development Funds for additional worker compensation.
USDA Certified Organic
Most consumers have come across the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Organic seal several times in the grocery store as one of the most sought after designations in today’s food landscape. This is thanks to its assurance that certified foods were produced without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or other additives.
The USDA has a long list of strict prerequisites for a product to be considered organic. Crops must be grown in soil without prohibited substances for at least three years prior to selling and done so without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. Livestock animals are to be raised with year-round outdoor access, 100% organic feed, and no antibiotics or hormones. And USDA Organic packaged foods must contain no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors.
Regenerative Organic
While USDA Certified Organic is a great certification in many ways, there are some gaps in its soil health and animal welfare requirements. It also doesn’t address social impact, with no requirements for farmer and farm worker treatment. This is where Regenerative Organic Certified takes the initiative to the next level.
Regenerative Organic utilizes USDA Organic guidelines as a baseline and adds new benchmarks to integrate the three pillars of regenerative organic agriculture (soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness) into one incredible certification.
Just some practices regenerative agriculture embraces include cover cropping, crop rotation, minimal soil disturbance, rotational grazing, composting, elimination of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, year-round outdoor access for animals, fair payments for farmers, and no forced labor.
Rainforest Alliance Certification
Though slightly less mainstream, the Rainforest Alliance certification is another great one to look for. Products that sport this certification seal are made with ingredients that contribute to social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
This is accomplished through prohibiting certified producers from cutting trees down to farm (in fact, they’re encouraged to plant them as part of their business model) and encouraging them to engage in land management focused on preserving natural environments. It also ensures human rights through precluding participants from providing poor working conditions, engaging in gender inequality, or using child, forced, or low wage work. Additionally, Rainforest Alliance is committed to ensuring farm workers are provided with appropriate living wages.
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Certification
And finally, we have the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Certification, which helps consumers to choose sustainably-sourced seafood. This is done through the dedication to fish stock health, environmental impacts of procurement, and effective fish stock management.
These promises to consumers are guaranteed through brand gap analysis conducted by MSC. Some of what MSC looks for in wild-caught fishery practices include trawl, longline, handraked and pot catching in freshwater and marine ecosystems, both on and offshore. Meanwhile, farm fisheries must meet predetermined stock health, ecosystem integrity, and fishery management standards.
The Bottom Line
While there are plenty of other certifications that can help us to better understand the social and environmental impacts of our food choices, these are a great place to start. By getting into the habit of scouring food labels, you can not only assess the nutrition of a given product but the sustainability as well. Consumer empowerment at its finest!
