The changes will better serve the needs of farmers, businesses and consumers that look to the Fair Trade Certified label to ensure that rigorous standards, transparency and efforts to provide the greatest impact possible have been met.
Under the revised Ingredients Policy, which applies to all food and personal care products, only products that contain 100% Fair Trade Certified ingredients may bear the full Fair Trade Certified label.
Products containing at least 20% Fair Trade Certified ingredients will now bear a new Fair Trade Certified Ingredients label.
The Fair Trade Certified label, now found on more than 10,000 products throughout the US, ensures shoppers that the farmers and workers producing the labeled goods were paid fair prices and wages, work in safe conditions, protect the environment, and earn community development funds to empower and improve their communities.
The updated label, a significant deviation from the original black-and-white Fair Trade Certified label, can be used in any country in the world. It was also designed to visually highlight the important benefits of Fair Trade.
Ivan Blackshear, graphic design manager at Fair Trade USA, said: “The clearer, more modern design helps the label ‘pop’ better on the shelf, enabling consumers to quickly find Fair Trade Certified products where they shop, while better communicating the importance of Fair Trade certification. The use of green expresses the environmental benefits inherent in Fair Trade, and the simpler, ‘farmer with an open basket design’ communicates the reciprocal relationship we have with the farmers that produce our food.”
This globally-registered mark, already beginning to appear on store shelves across the nation, offers a simple labelling solution to companies working with Fair Trade USA in multiple countries. The two versions of the label, Fair Trade Certified and Fair Trade Certified Ingredients, clearly highlight the difference between products with varying percentages of Fair Trade Certified ingredients.
Developed in response to a comprehensive two-month consultation period with multiple stakeholders in the Fair Trade movement, the new draft of Fair Trade USA’s Multiple Ingredients Product Policy clearly defines the composition and labelling requirements for products that are composed of a mixture of both Fair Trade Certified ingredients and ingredients for which Fair Trade standards do not currently exist like eggs, wheat, and dairy.
Under the revised policy, only products with 100% Fair Trade Certified content can use the full label.
Source: Fair Trade USA
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