Third Party Certifications

Certifications are optional, third-party standards that you can pursue for your food product. If you go through the certification process, you are allowed to use a logo that indicates your conformity to the third-party standards to consumers. In general, you should pursue a certification when it will expand your market, increase the value of your product in the eyes of consumers, or better align your product and mission. However, you should be aware of the costs involved, both direct and indirect, and make an informed business decision about any certifications you choose to pursue. 

How do certifications add value to your brand? They indicate to consumers that you are aligned to the standards of that certifying authority. This can play a crucial role in your overall brand ethos, and how you communicate alignment between your mission and your product. For example, if you are Certified Regenerative Organic, consumers may recognize the logo and be willing to pay more for perceived higher quality items that use fewer pesticides and promote farm health. Consumers may also recognize certain certifications as moral benchmarks that align their purchasing with their values, and they may be willing to pay extra for the associated good feelings - think Fair Trade, B Corp, and Animal Welfare Certified. Certifications can also expand your consumer base by indicating to certain customers that you comply with their dietary needs - think of kosher, halal, vegan, and gluten free as some examples. 

Each certifying authority is allowed to set its own standards that you must meet in order to use its logo. Typically, this involves completing a questionnaire so that they can assess your compliance, paying a licensing/application fee to the certifying organization, and allowing your operation to be inspected for continued compliance. Some certifications can involve hundreds of questions and significant legwork. 

The effort involved in attaining a certification often depends on the scope of the certification’s materiality. For example, gluten free certification may require verifying that you produce your products in a gluten free facility and that your ingredients have been tested and found to not contain any gluten. However, B Corp certification requires you to assess your energy usage, employee welfare, governance, and other metrics across all arms of your operation. Still other certifications may require specific sourcing conditions that depend less on your operations and more on how your ingredients are grown. 

Certifications can be a controversial topic in the food space, because while they create standards that consumers can visualize, they may be seen as too restrictive or not innovative enough. In many cases, you can choose not to license a specific logo through a certifying authority and try communicating similar values to consumers directly - through infographics, language on your package, and online. But, again, that’s not as easy for consumers to understand as a well-recognized logo on your package. And sometimes, especially when it comes to dietary standards such as gluten free, a third-party certification can reassure customers that your products truly meet their needs.

If you do choose to pursue a certification, you should make sure it creates accretive value for your brand by estimating the costs and added value that it brings. Many certifying authorities offer lower prices to smaller brands, so don’t rule out a certification without looking into the details. 

Some forward-thinking certifications can also serve as valuable indicators to investors, employees, and potential business partners. While most investors are likely to demand the same financial returns of a Certified B Corp as any other company, the certification may be viewed as an opportunity identifier and risk mitigator, as Matthew Weatherley-White, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Caprock, says in the Yale CBEY Investor Guide to B Corps. Similarly, employees may identify more with a brand that pursues certifications and practices aligned to their personal values, which can lead to better workplace culture and performance. Even if you don’t want to be a Certified B Corp (or you don’t yet qualify based on your score), you can take the B Corp assessment to benchmark your company’s impacts, identify where you’re most aligned, and check that against your company values.

A Note on Organic

Organic certification is unique in that it is regulated by the USDA (yes, the organization responsible for farm subsidies and meat safety...and also the entire US Forest Service). While the USDA contracts out to private certifiers, their standards come with the expected amount of bureaucratic specificity and jargon. And since it is a government certification, there are rules in place to prevent non-certified companies from misleading consumers (for example, you cannot simply type “organic” on your package unless you are certified, but you can say “made with organic ingredients” if that is true). You can explore more on the USDA webpage here. Somewhat surprisingly, organic is not just a statement about how your ingredients were grown, but also how you manufacture. In order to use the USDA Certified Organic logo, you must manufacture in a certified organic facility, using organic ingredients (with some minor exceptions). This means that if you want organic certification, you need to plan ahead in your ingredient sourcing, production process, costing (including consumer willingness to pay analysis), packaging, and brand values.