Standards
Drinks companies must meet the following standards for at least 50% of their product line:
- Made with a balanced objective of local, organic and highest-quality.
- Free of genetically modified ingredients (including GM beet sugar and vinegar derived from GM corn).
- Sweeteners must be organic or Fair Trade certified.*
- Free of artificial ingredients, including colors, flavors and preservatives including lecithin, carrageenan, gums and artificial thickeners. Free of natural flavorings and colors.
- Free of high fructose corn syrup.
- If made with fruits, vegetables or nuts, they are grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.
- All spices and herbs must be certified organic, Fair Trade or traceable to the farm level and grown without the use of synthetic inputs.***
- Dairy products must be made with milk from animals raised using good animal husbandry**** with access to the outdoors. Made without hormones, sub-therapeutic antibiotics and rBGH-free.
- Made in the USA or US territories.
- Made by a crafter that is an upstanding member of the Good Food community, committed to equity and inclusion in all levels of their business as exemplified through integrating these practices:
- Creating a safe and healthy work environment where employees receive a fair wage, are safe and respected at work and have access to the resources they need to keep themselves healthy.
- Offering a diversity, equity, and inclusion training to staff members and/or leadership annually.
- Thoughtfully acknowledging the heritage of culturally-specific food on websites, packaging and/or marketing materials.
- If your company is Publicly-held, Owned/Partially-owned by publicly-held compan(y)ies, or has over $100 million in annual revenue, your company, as well as its parent company(ies), are required to meet additional criteria to become Good Food Qualified:
- Offer a minimum of 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all employees
- Have at least one woman, minority, or LGBTQIA+ representative on their Board of Directors
- Have a proven track record of prioritizing a safe and fairly-compensated work culture, with no violations in the area of wage or workplace safety in the past 5 years. This will be verified on the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker
**IPM practices will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
***If less than 2% of ingredients in the product do not meet this stipulation, the entry will not be disqualified.
****SFA will refer to GAP Level 5 guidelines to define “good animal husbandry” should there be any questions as to eligibility based on this criterion.
Apply to join by reaching out to membership@specialtyfood.com.