Food supply chain traceability in the United States
There’s a shared belief amongst CEOs and marketing leaders of sustainable food brands that their products and services can make the world a better place. Unfortunately, within our food system, a small number of rogue businesses erode the trust of consumers with false sustainability claims. That’s where claims and certifications like USDA Organic, Regenerative Organic Certified, and Fair Trade Certified have an important role to play in stewarding the authenticity of sustainable food brands. The challenge for food brands, especially in the United States, is managing the complex and disparate sources of data required during the auditing and verification process.
Food brands source their ingredients from farms, suppliers and ingredient providers across many regions and countries, relying on people and processes across the supply chain to ensure the sustainability data for each ingredient is verified and trustworthy. Traditionally, marketing managers and compliance managers relied on paper-based or Microsoft Excel-based systems to manage the heavy amounts of data required to confidently make sustainability claims about their products.These manual processes that rely on multiple stakeholders can be costly and time consuming.
Managing sustainability claims and combatting greenwashing using software like Prove by Backstory, gives confidence back to food brands and their customers.
Here’s how sustainability software is ushering sustainable brands into the future:
How software helps food brands verify their sustainability claims
1. Combatting greenwashing
In the wake of greenwashing accusations against sustainable food brands, class action lawsuits have been on the rise. As consumers gain greater awareness of environmental and social issues, they place more scrutiny on food brands, expecting them to be doing the right thing by people and the planet. Brands like Oatly, Starbucks, and Keurig have been subject to criticism for unclear marketing messages around topics like carbon footprints, plastic use, and recycling. For challenger food brands that are scaling up, collecting information from their supply chains while still small, allows them to verify sustainability data as they grow, giving marketing managers confidence in marking sustainability claims. For large food brands, adopting digital technologies minimizes the risk of making false claims by breaking down silos, and eliminating the human error that comes with paper-based or Excel based systems. Cloud-based software, like Prove by Backstory, hosts data about raw material, supply chain, and ingredients allowing food brands to make authentic sustainability claims about their products to wholesalers, end consumers, third party auditors, and regulatory bodies.
2. Adopting certifications that align with consumer values
Food certifications and labels are used on nearly every product in grocery stores nationwide in the USA. These certifications are issued by third party companies to verify that the products, methods, and systems used by the product’s manufacturer are meeting various food safety, environmental, and ethical standards. There are a variety of organizations that test and certify these products—ranging from religious institutions to the United States Government.
A report by Deloitte, commissioned by the American Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), cited social impact, “free-from,” and naturally-oriented (for example, organic, non-GMO) consumer values as drivers of evolving food preferences. Since then, the food industry has seen the rise of new certifications that reflect emerging consumer values such as Regenerative Organic Certified, WBENC Certification for women-owned businesses, and Glyphosate Residue Free certification.
For sustainable food brands, hosting their supply chain data in cloud-based software like Prove by Backstory, allows them to quickly adopt new certifications and respond quickly to evolving consumer demands. Having quick access to the sustainability data, as opposed to traditional paper or Excel based sources, allows marketing and food product development leaders to confidently test new messaging and packaging with consumers.
3. Providing transparency to food consumers
Before consumers get to the grocery store shelf or e-commerce checkout, they have multiple interactions with food brands online. Sustainable food retailers must leverage social media channels like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to provide their consumers with much desired transparency about how their products are made, where they come from, and the communities that the food brand supports.
For example, BCorp certified brand, Heilala Vanilla, is a social enterprise that supports vanilla growers in the Pacific. They partnered with American YouTube celebrity Claire Saffitz (a.k.a Dessert Person). They used her channel to promote the natural vanilla extraction processes they use and the impact they make for their communities of growers to an audience of bakers. This level of transparency is expected by consumers of sustainable brands. Using software like Prove by Backstory allows brands to centralize their sustainability data and mine it for stories that resonate with their consumers, giving marketing managers a source of storytelling inspiration.
Embracing the Future of Sustainability with Traceability Software
Software is not just a tool but a strategic asset for sustainable food brands looking to thrive in the modern marketplace. In the digital age, the data behind food products is worth as much, if not more than, the food product itself. Competition between sustainable food brands is at an all time high, so brands need to stand out with novel stories for their consumers that align with their values, and avoid making false claims that could expose them to green washing criticism. Shifting away from paper-based or Excel-based verification systems offers food brands agility to respond to new consumer trends, and rigorously assess that their raw material suppliers, farmers, growers, and supply chain partners are acting in accordance with consumer expectations.
Traditionally, compliance managers and marketing managers had few interactions within their food company. This represents a massive lost source of value. Compliance data that is required as part of getting USDA Organic, Non-GMO, BCorp or Fair TradeCertified is typically hidden from marketing managers. All they see is the green tick that they can use on packaging and promotions. By making certification data available company-wide, there is an opportunity to provide greater transparency and unique stories about the positive impact sustainable food brands can have on the environment and for the communities they operate in. Using software like Prove by Backstory to gather verified sustainability stories empowers food marketers to tell authentic stories to their customers that set them apart from the competition. Using data to inform brand storytelling combats the risk of greenwashing by eliminating assumptions about sustainability that are common within large food brands or food startups.
Fast Company reported in 2023, eight food brands that are changing how consumers think about food. Linking them together was either a sustainability or social impact initiative. For example,“Vita Coco knows it isn’t enough to appeal to its customer base simply by selling a delicious product — companies need to offer something tangible to their consumers that aligns with their morals and values. Demonstrating its commitment to the environment, Vita Coco planted 23,000 tree seedlings in 2022 and trained more than 1,000 farmers in regenerative agricultural operations to develop healthier environmental practices. The company also expanded on its relationship with the communities from which it sources its coconuts, building three classrooms within the past year (bringing its total to 36) to expand access to education.”
The takeaway is that for food brands to stand out in the modern age, they need to contribute to environmental and social causes and back it up with data.
About Prove by Backstory
Backstory was born out of curiosity for how we might restore the positive outcomes that local supply chains provide us, like economic prosperity, ecological benefits, and positive social connection, and bring these to long, fragmented supply chains. Backstory is a place where cutting edge technology meets environmental sustainability and innovative business models of the future.
We are here to use technology to solve some of the world's most wicked problems. We support ethical brands to be the “stewards of story” as their rightful place of highlighting the heroes of the value chain, the grower, the land, and the consumer.
We’ve developed, Prove, a software solution that helps sustainable food brands manage evidence of marketing claims and sustainability. Access existing and new on-farm data, gain insight, uncover untapped value, and rest assured that your marketing claims are verified.
