AUSTIN, TX — Food brands, organizations and experts have closed ranks in the name of transparency, higher standards and innovation through the creation of the Good Food Collective (GFC).
The organization, which includes founding partners Quinn and LesserEvil, aims to help consumers make informed choices without having to navigate complex product labels. GFC will use its united power to advocate for more clarity and integrity in food labeling, ingredient standards and consumer education.
“We believe that every person deserves access to honest, transparent information about the food they consume,” said Daniel Goetz, founder and CEO of GoodPop, one of the GFC founding partner companies. “By raising our standards across the board, we can create a healthier, more informed future for all consumers. Our goal is to advocate for regulation that both encourages fair play and allows for innovation.”
Group members, which include brands such as Rudi’s Bakery and Simple Mills, pledge to uphold GFC’s ingredient and packaging transparency standards. It also intends to recruit at least 30 members by the end of 2025.
The first task GFC is taking on is improving nutrition labels. The organization submitted a formal comment on July 11 regarding the FDA’s proposal to include a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label, in which GFC highlighted the importance of effective, consumer-friendly warnings and advocated for education on products high in added sugars, sodium, and saturated fats.
“LesserEvil is on a perpetual mission to make healthy, organic, less-processed, and sustainable snacks more accessible to everyone,” said Charles Coristine, president and CEO at LesserEvil. “In our perfect world, every consumer would have access to healthy snacks and the resources to know exactly what goes into every item they’re feeding to their families and themselves — from sourcing to packaging and everything in between. That’s why we’re so excited to be a part of the Good Food Collective with GoodPop; their mission echoes our own, and we’re confident that together we’ll be able to make a real difference.”
In addition to the recommendations, the group also worked with branding and design agency Interact Brands to design a newly proposed FOP label. This version — designed from consumer research conducted by GFC — features a QR code with a product’s nutritional information, including the risks related to consuming an excess of added sugars, sodium and saturated fats.
