Other standards

Besides the previously discussed quality standards, with the main focus on the production, from raw materials to end product, of safe foods, some other standards and schemes exist that focus on quite other aspects in which consumers are highly interested.

ISO 26000

ISO 26000 is Guidance on Social Responsibility¹⁶⁹. Companies that implement ISO 26000 have, next to conventional business objectives, a set of specific company objectives on:

• environment;

• human rights;

• labour practices;

• organisational governance;

• fair operating practices;

• consumer issues;

• community involvement/society development.

ISO 26000 provides guidance to corporate social responsibility. It does not lay down specific requirements and it is therefore not possible, contrary to other ISO management standards, to achieve certification. The impossibility of obtaining a certificate is one of the principles of this standard.

The scope of ISO 26000 is to make social responsibility operational. ISO 26000 provides guidance for all types of organisation, regardless of their size or location, on:

167 http://www.brcglobalstandards.com/standards/storage-and-distribution/.

168 http://www.gs1.org/transportlogistics/forum/work_groups/ll/.

169 http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_and_leadership_standards/social_responsibility/

sr_discovering_iso26000.htm#std-1.

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1. Concepts, terms and definitions related to social responsibility;

2. Background, trends and characteristics of social responsibility;

3. Principles and practices relating to social responsibility;

4. Core subjects and issues of social responsibility;

5. Integrating, implementing and promoting socially responsible behaviour throughout the organisation and, through its policies and practices, within its sphere of influence;

6. Identifying and engaging with stakeholders;

7. Communicating commitments, performance and other information related to social responsibility.

ISO 26000 is intended to assist organisations in contributing to sustainable development. It is intended to encourage them to go beyond legal compliance, recognising that compliance with law is a fundamental duty of any organisation and an essential part of their social responsibility. It is intended to promote common understanding in the field of social responsibility, and to complement other instruments and initiatives for social responsibility, not to replace them.

ISO 26000 was approved on 12 September 2010 in Oslo with 93% of all votes and has now been published. Only 5 countries voted against.

Fair trade

Fair trade encourages sustainable development in international trade,¹⁷⁰ most importantly the export from poor countries to richer Western countries. Fair trade means that e.g. coffee bean growers, cacao bean growers and banana growers in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia receive an honest price for their export products. This is a price that is based on production costs rather than a price that is subject to the situation on the international commodities market. Fair trade products also need to comply with very strict environmental requirements.

Already in the 40’s and 50’s of last century some religious and non-profit organisations were actively promoting products from third world countries in the Western world. The Fair Trade organisation took its current shape in the sixties. In those years, fair trade practices were often seen as a political statement against neo-imperialism. Students opposed the multinational corporations and trade practices with the indigenous population. In that period the slogan ‘trade not aid’ was invented. Organisations such as UNCTAD and the British NGO Oxfam were involved in the foundation. In 1969 the first Dutch ‘Worldshop’ was opened, quickly followed by many others in the Benelux, Germany and many other Western European countries. At first, the products sold under the label were

170 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade.

mainly traditionally handcrafted; over time more and more foodstuffs were also included in the product range.

The credibility of Fair Trade is dependent on strict criteria and a permanent and good supervision of those criteria. Currently products sold under the Fair Trade label (Figure 4.4) are produced in 23 countries that are interconnected through the autonomous umbrella organisation: Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International eingetrager Verein (FLO-eV). This organisation determines the criteria and assists producers to comply with the requirements. The inspection body of the FLO-eV operates totally independent. Fair Trade certification can be achieved after evaluation of a set of 250 criteria related to working conditions and investment in environmental friendly and economic development.

The following organisations are involved in the Fair trade movement:

• The World Fair Trade Organization (formerly the International Fair Trade Association) is a global association created in 1989 of fair trade producer cooperatives and associations, export marketing companies, importers, retailers, national, and regional fair trade networks and fair trade support organisations.

• The Network of European Worldshops, created in 1994, is the umbrella network of 15 national Worldshop associations in 13 different countries all over Europe.

• The European Fair Trade Association (EFTA), created in 1990, is a network of European alternative trading organisations which import products from some 400 economically disadvantaged producer groups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

• FINE, created in 1998, an informal association¹⁷¹ whose goal is to harmonise fair trade standards and guidelines, increase the quality and efficiency of fair trade monitoring systems, and advocate fair trade politically,

171 FINE stands for (F) Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) (I) International Fair Trade Association, now the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) (N) Network of European Worldshops (NEWS!) and (E) European Fair Trade Association (EFTA).

Figure 4.4. The International Fair Trade certification mark.

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• The Fair Trade Federation (FTF), created in 1994, is an association of Canadian and American fair trade wholesalers, importers, and retailers. The organisation links its members to fair trade producer groups while acting as a clearinghouse for information on fair trade and providing resources and networking opportunities to its members.

• The Fair Trade Action Network, created in 2007, is an international fair trade volunteer web-based network. The association links volunteers from a dozen of European and North American countries, actively supports Fair Trade Towns initiatives and encourages grassroots networking at the international level.

The Carbon Trust Standard

The Carbon Trust Standard¹⁷² awards organisations for real carbon reduction.

Carbon Trust certifies organisations that have measured, managed and genuinely reduced their carbon footprint and committed to making further reductions year on year. In March 2011 London Metropolitan University has officially been rewarded the Carbon Trust Standard, after reducing carbon emissions by nearly 12%.

The Carbon Trust Standard is the world’s first certification scheme designed to allow companies to measure the carbon footprint of their operations and facilitate an independent, specialist review of energy management practices. The use of the Carbon Trust Standard logo (Figure 4.5) allows companies to then communicate their commitment to combating climate change. The award requires organisations to provide evidence on real reductions in their own CO₂ emissions rather than paying third parties to reduce emissions via off-setting, like planting trees or green tariffs.

The Carbon Trust is set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with

172 http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/cut-carbon-reduce-costs/promote/carbon-trust-standard/Pages/

carbon-trust-standard.aspx.

Figure 4.5. The Carbon Trust Standard logo.

organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies. The Carbon Trust works with the UK business and public sector through its work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise. The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.

Over 350 organisations have achieved the Standard with a total carbon footprint of nearly 35 million tonnes of CO₂. Organisations awarded the Standard include well-known names such as First Direct, Tesco’s, O2 and public sector organisations such as HM Treasury, London Fire Brigade, DSM and Manchester University. To achieve certification against the Standard, an organisation will need to meet the requirements in three areas:

• measure the carbon footprint over 2-3 years;

• demonstrate a reduction in carbon emissions;

• provide evidence of good carbon management.

Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Alliance¹⁷³ is an environmental organisation based in the United States.

Their main objective is to protect ecosystems and the people and animals that are depending on it. The Chiquita company collaborates with the Rainforest Alliance since 1992 and was rewarded with certification in 2005. This is shown by the little green frog next to famous blue sticker on Chiquita bananas. By obtaining the Rainforest Alliance certificate, Chiquita assures that its bananas are produced using sustainable methods on certified plantations. The quality mark can also be found on coffee and tea (Figure 4.6).

173 http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/.

Figure 4.6. The Rainforest Alliance quality mark.

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Inspections take place on farms or plantations. The inspections are performed by independent and accredited organisations, for this reason the Rainforest Alliance quality mark is considered reliable. To be allowed to use the Rainforest Alliance mark, farmers have to comply with 200 strict requirements. The requirements are divers: there are requirements on nature preservation, water preservation and forest management. The workforce on the plantations should receive the minimum wage and good secondary working conditions, including a safe environment to live. The Rainforest Alliance does not guarantee prices to farmers.

Marine Stewardship Council

The Marine Stewardship Council¹⁷⁴ is one of the most important organisations promoting a sustainable fishing industry. Some other organisations are: Friends of the Sea (FOS), Marine Ecolabel Japan (MEL-Japan), Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), GlobalGAP, Naturland, DEWHA Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and Thai Quality Shrimp (TQS). These are all organisations that issues certificates. There are also other organisations providing fish recommendations, producing ‘Sustainable Seafood Guides’ or providing information and recommendations to businesses and consumers on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Most of the schemes are improving their conformance with the FAO guidelines. Key attributes for these guidelines are Scope; Accuracy;

Independence; Precision; Transparency; Standardisation; and Cost effectiveness.

Of the certification schemes, the MSC makes the most comprehensive, robust, and transparent assessment of performance.¹⁷⁵ MSC is the only scheme that specifically requires the data and information to be sufficient for achieving the other objectives (stock status and ecosystem impacts). MSC uses the most recently available stock-specific assessment results directly from fishery managers and stock assessment scientists. MSC criteria require that the target population(s) and associated ecological community are maintained at high productivity relative to their potential productivity. The assessment of this considers outcome indicators (stock status, reference points and stock rebuilding) and harvest strategy indicators (the harvest strategy, control rules, monitoring and stock assessment procedures).

The consideration of stock status includes a peer review of the stock assessment information. Certification by the MSC’s program is rather expensive (on average 30,000 euro). For small businesses these costs usually are too high.

MSC evaluation is a cycle where one or more ships are audited by an independent commission (therefore not by the MSC itself) against the MSC standard. An

174 http://www.msc.org/home-page?set_language=en.

175 Parkes, G., Walmsley, S., Cambridge, T., Trumble, R., Clarke, S., Lamberts, D., Souter, D. and White C., 2009. Review of Fish Sustainability Information Schemes - Final Report, October 2009. MRAG, London, UK. Available at: http://cels.uri.edu/urissi/docs/FSIG_Report.pdf.

evaluation cycle normally takes around 12-15 months, but longer periods are possible. The whole process is open to the public and any stakeholder (including fishing industry, scientists and environmental organisations) can participate in the evaluation cycle. There are possibilities for participation oriented approaches and grievance procedures. A certificate is issued for a period of five years with a minimum number of inspections of one per year.

The MSC’s fishery certification program and seafood ecolabel recognise and reward sustainable fishing (Figure 4.7). The Marine Stewardship Council is a global non-profit organisation working with fisheries, seafood companies, scientists, conservation groups and the public to promote the best environmental choice in seafood. Consumers can recognise certified products by the blue MSC-logo. MSC was founded 1997 by Unilever and World Wildlife Fund as a result of concerns over the state of fisheries as expressed by a wide range of stakeholders.

The total number of available MSC-certified products and countries involved is growing. Anno 2009 approximately 8% of the total world offshore fishing used for human consumption took place under the MSC-program.

The head office of the Marine Stewardship Council is located in London and has branches in Seattle and Sydney. Furthermore there are offices in Scotland (opened in 2008), Germany (2008), the Netherlands (2007), South Africa (2008), Japan (2007), France (2009), Sweden (2010) and Spain (2011) Worldwide more than 10,000 products certified under MSC are available in 74 countries. In total, over 240 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme with 105 certified and over 140 under full assessment.

The three main principles of the MSC standard for sustainable fishing are:

1. the stock status for fish or shellfish shall be and stay healthy;

2. the impact of the fishing industry shall be and stay small;

3. the supervision of the fishing sector shall be organised correctly, compliance shall be controlled and verified.

Figure 4.7. The Marine Stewardships Council certificate trade mark.

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Irrespective of the size, range, the fished species and catch area, a fishery business can request to be audited by an independent certification body to the MSC environmental standard. If the business meets the requirements, it can achieve certification. Businesses that want to carry the MSC label on their products also have to obtain a certificate for chain control to ensure the traceability of the certified fish products.

UTZ certified

Started in 2002, UTZ Certified¹⁷⁶ is dedicated to creating an open and transparent Marketplace for agricultural products. It offers coffee, tea and cocoa certification programs and manages traceability for RSPO certified palm oil. UTZ Certified’s vision is to achieve sustainable agricultural supply chains where farmers are professionals implementing good practices which lead to better business, where the food industry take responsibility by demanding and rewarding sustainable grown products, and where consumers buy products which meet their standard for social and environmental responsibility (Figure 4.8).

Until 2007 UTZ was known as UTZ Kapeh, which means ‘good coffee’ in Maya language from Guatemala. In just over five years UTZ Certified has grown to be one of the leading coffee certification programs worldwide, and is now expanding to become a multi-commodity program. UTZ Certified’s vision is to achieve sustainable agricultural supply chains, that meet the growing needs and expectations of farmers, the food industry and consumers alike.

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. Its members accepted

176 http://www.utzcertified.org/.

Figure 4.8. The UTZ Certified trade mark.

its principles and criteria for sustainable production in November 2007, the time it contracted UTZ Certified as its provider for traceability services.

By the end of 2008 the first plantations were officially certified and the first sustainably produced palm oil was traced by UTZ. Since then the volume has been growing at an ever increasing pace. In 2009 the total volume of physically traced RSPO-certified palm oil was 100,000 metric tons. In 2010 it nearly quadrupled to almost 400,000 metric tons.

European logo for organic production

If a business operator wants to place organic products on the market he or she must comply with all relevant legislation. One of the requirements, to enable consumers to easily recognise the products as for what they are, is the use of the European logo for organic products (Figure 4.9). The logo communicates that the foodstuff is produced according to all requirements relevant to the production of organic production, processing and trade. Organic products are produced under the following conditions:

• The seeds are of organic origin.

• Fertilisers are of organic origin.

• The use of plant protection products is restricted and limited.

• Compound products are produced using (almost) uniquely raw materials of organic origins. An exception can be made for those ingredients that are temporarily unavailable.

• Transportation and trade took place under controlled conditions.

Logo for gluten free

Patients suffering from coeliac disease (food intolerance) cannot tolerate food containing gluten. Foodstuffs containing gluten cause damaging of the mucous membrane of the small intestine, this in turn causes the intestines to stop functioning correctly. Healthy small intestines have a large number of intestinal Figure 4.9. The European logo for Organic Farming.

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villi on the inside of the intestine. Altogether this results in a large surface area for the absorption of nutrients. The villi of coeliac patients do not tolerate gluten, resulting in a bad absorption of nutrients. The human body needs these nutrients to function correctly and in children they are also essential in growth.

Patients suffering from gluten intolerance require foodstuffs that do not contain gluten and are therefore identifiable as such. The authorities have laid down rules that aim to enable patients to make a well informed choice. Regulation 41/2009¹⁷⁷ states that a product is only seen as ‘gluten free’ when the concentration of gluten is not higher than 20 mg/kg in the foodstuff. If this criterion is met a logo (Figure 4.10), indicating the foodstuff is gluten free, can be used with the product. When the concentration is higher than 20 mg/kg, but not higher than 100 mg/kg the term ‘very low gluten’ can be used. Products that contain gluten fall under the legislation concerning allergen labelling.

Logo for vegetarian products

Vegetarians do not consume meat, poultry and fish products. Most vegetarians do consume product of animal origin that are obtained without killing the animal, such as milk (products), cheese and eggs. Some vegetarians do consume fish.

A healthy diet is possible without the consumption of meat. A vegetarian diet composed of sufficient vegetables, fruit, bread, potatoes wheat products, pulse crops, dairy products, eggs and meat replacers provide all the nutrients a human body requires.¹⁷⁸ Vegans do not eat any products of animal origin, so also no dairy products or eggs.

177 EU, 2009. Commission Regulation (EC) No 41/2009 of 20 January 2009 concerning the composition and labelling of foodstuffs suitable for people intolerant to gluten. Official Journal of the European Union L 16, 21/01/2009: 3-5.

178 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FDE/is_3_25/ai_n26957000/.

Figure 4.10. The logo indicating a product is ‘gluten free’.

The European V-label (Figure 4.11) is used as a logo indicating the product is

‘suitable for vegetarians’, without limiting the product to vegetarians only. It is registered in 1985 by the European Vegetarian Union (EVU) and is recognised and used in more than 16 European countries. In all these countries the same logo is used. The logo is available in two versions: one for vegetarian products (that can still contain ingredients of animal origin such as dairy and eggs) and one for vegan products not containing any ingredient of animal origins.

Currently, the EVU label is displayed mostly on food products and in restaurants in Europe, although some products displaying the label may be exported to the United States. A website (V-label) containing information on vegetarian products, producers and restaurants that have accepted the criteria of the V-label is available.¹⁷⁹ Halal food

In Arabic ‘halal’ stands for foodstuffs that are ‘clean’, ‘allowed’ or ‘permitted’. The term indicating the opposite is haram (in Arabic: ‘unclean’, ‘not allowed’), some

In Arabic ‘halal’ stands for foodstuffs that are ‘clean’, ‘allowed’ or ‘permitted’. The term indicating the opposite is haram (in Arabic: ‘unclean’, ‘not allowed’), some

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