There are so many labels on food these days, it can be difficult to spot the brand name amid all those symbols and acronyms. The supermarket aisles are filled with things that are labeled "organic," "dolphin safe," "grass-fed," "cruelty free," "USDA Grade A," "fair trade," "made in the USA," etc.
The truth is that many such labels are less than illuminating (and don't even get us started on misleading marketing terms like "natural"). A food that bears a label saying that some organization has certified it as good for animals, good for the planet, and/or good for health doesn't necessarily mean any such thing.
But some labels are quite illuminating. When a food carries such a label, consumers can be certain it means what it says, and that what it says is of value. And companies that have paid to go through the certification processes involved in obtaining the right to use such a label have spent their money well.
Here are our five favorite certification and inspection labels.
5. Rainforest Alliance
In a world full of buzzwords, there is no word that says less than "biodiversity." It's a term easily hijacked by marketers eager to suggest that their products are, somehow, good for everything on the planet.
Enter the Rainforest Alliance, an independent, nonprofit organization that offers certification, verification, and validation services tied to widely accepted norms in the sustainability movement.
The little green frog on the Rainforest Alliance labels has come to be accepted by environmentally concerned shoppers as the best indicator of whether a food product protects the environment and agricultural workers.
We're particularly impressed that Rainforest Alliance certification in agriculture means adherence to the standards of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN).
It's worth noting that some environmentalists believe the SAN/Rainforest standards do not do enough to protect wildlife. In particular, a petition on Change.org suggests that SAN/Rainforest needs to alter rules related to the caging of an animal called a luwak. We won't weigh in on the details, but we will note that SAN/Rainforest have demonstrated an openness to tweaking their standards.
4. Marine Stewardship Council
"Sustainability" is another of those words where the meaning seems to depend upon the user. Not everything labeled "sustainable" is any such thing. But if there's a part of the food chain where history has demonstrated that we're not particularly good at sustaining a food source, it is seafood.
The Marine Stewardship Council recognizes that a) the word "sustainable" has to mean something if anyone is going to pay attention, and b) sustainability is crucial to the world's fisheries.
Unfortunately, there appear to be substantial problems emerging with the MSC. Activists say the organization has lost the focus and purity of its early years and begun certifying fisheries that engage in less-than-sustainable practices.
That's not a surprise, actually. Seafood labeling has a long history of difficulty. Folks of a certain age likely remember when "dolphin-safe" labels on cans of tuna fish were seen as an accurate indicator of a brand's environmental sensibilities.
Our sense is that the MSC is at a turning point — it can work to maintain its reputation, or wait for another organization to arise and replace it.
3. Whole Foods' 5-Steps
Leave it to Whole Foods, which serves as a sort of all-knowing parent figure to the organic and sustainability movements, to come up with food labels that are superior to what suppliers, trade associations, and certification organizations have created.
Whole Foods' 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards aren't a sort of buy-this-and-fret-no-more guidepost like most certification labels. The 5-Steps require consumers to work.
The steps rank meat by the degree to which it is produced without harming animals. Meat in Step 1 comes from animals with lives that are — nicer — than what most meat producers require, but it's hardy animal paradise. Meat from Step 5, however, is produced in an environment that is about as close to perfect as we can make it for animals destined for slaughter.
What makes this interesting is that the cost of meat at Whole Foods correlates pretty closely to where it stands on the 5-Step standards. The better something is for animals, the more expensive it is to buy.
What we like about that is that it requires consumers to think long and hard about how much they value animals compared to how much they value money. And those aren't always easy things to reconcile.
2. "Non-GMO Project Verfied"
Amid the shrill arguments that dominate the debate over GMO labels, there is one group that is a symbol of reasonableness.
The Non-GMO Project aims to document whether or not food contains genetically modified ingredients, and as long as government regulators won't require GMO labels, the Non-GMO project is the best alternative available.
What we like most about the project is that it recognizes the very real limits involved in documenting genetically modified foods. Or, as the project puts it on its website, "Unfortunately, “GMO free” and similar claims are not legally or scientifically defensible due to limitations of testing methodology. In addition, the risk of contamination to seeds, crops, ingredients, and products is too high to reliably claim that a product is “GMO free.”
1. AIB International
Sometimes the oldest is the best, and in the case of third-party certification in the food industry, that's certainly true.
AIB, formerly known as the American Institute of Baking, has been around since 1919. And although it began as a sort of clearinghouse for best practices in baking, it morphed over the years into the premier safety certification group in the United States.
There are lots of ways to show consumers that you practice food safety at your facility, but the label that always catches our attention is one that shows you're willing to submit to the famously difficult (and unscheduled) inspections by AIB.
As far as we're concerned, nothing makes us feel safer about what we eat than knowing it's made by folks who have gone through AIB audits.
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