Do Good Foods is a startup that produces “carbon-reduced” chicken. But what exactly does that mean? The company says that its chickens eat feed sourced from grocery store surpluses. Do Good Foods claims each chicken product will prevent four pounds of food waste from being sent to a landfill, helping to reduce carbon emissions. On its site, the company says it is the “first US chicken brand with “verified carbon-reduced benefits.’”
It is not clear, though, how the process is verified. Carbon reduced is not a label the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has any role in defining. Do Good Foods did not respond to a request for information on how the verification process works.
Carbon reduced is just one of the many food label terms, which total at least 450, customers may come across at the grocery store. In 2021, the three most popular labeling claims on fresh foods in the US, defined as poultry, seafood, and produce, were natural, no antibiotics, and no artificial additives, according to Euromonitor, a data analytics firm. Companies will often come up with their own labeling like Mondelez’s Cocoa Life, a global sustainable program aimed at improving cocoa farmers’ lives, or Starbucks’ CAFE Practices, a program to source ethically-grown coffee.
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