Food brands unite under Good Food Collective

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Food brands unite under Good Food Collective

25 Jul 2025

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

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).

“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.”

The organization, which includes founding partners Quinn and LesserEvil, aims to help consumers make informed choices without having to navigate complex product labels.

Group members, such as Rudi’s Bakery and Simple Mills, pledge to uphold GFC’s ingredient and packaging transparency standards.

“For almost 50 years, Rudi’s has stood for clean, transparent food,” said Lauren Start, VP of marketing at Rudi’s Bakery. “We baked organic before it was even a thing. As we think about our next 50 years, we want to scale the impact we have. Joining the GFC was a natural next step. It is so powerful to team up with these amazing brands and together advocate for real, transparent food and empower consumers to make healthy choices.”

GFC will use its united power to advocate for more clarity and integrity in food labeling, ingredient standards and consumer education. It also intends to recruit at least 30 members by the end of 2025.

“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.” — Daniel Goetz | founder and CEO | GoodPop

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 GFC 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.

“We support front-of-pack labeling because it is a great way to get consumers concise information on what matters most,” Start said. “We joined forces with the GFC because we believe in their vision on how to do this effectively. We love the recommended system of focusing on front-of-pack labeling for high levels of what consumers watch most, like saturated fat, sodium and added sugar. It is such a simple way to build a better understanding of what you are eating.”