Upcycled Certified
CIRCULARITY
CONFIDENCE HIGH · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
This mark answers exactly one question: did this ingredient come from something that was headed for a waste destination. It answers it with more discipline than the category usually gets. The waste destinations are enumerated, the applicant must show a physical diversion with bills of lading or invoices, secondary waste created during manufacture is netted off, and an item with a net negative diversion cannot be certified. It is worth reading the designation, not just the butterfly-style seal: an Upcycled Certified Product need only be 10% upcycled by weight, and the Minimal Content Product designation applies below that with no percentage floor at all. The mistake to avoid is inference. There is no organic requirement, no labour standard, no emissions requirement and no packaging requirement in this standard, so the other 90% of a certified product is unassessed. Two structural notes: compliance rests substantially on applicant attestations on the certifier's own templates with no mandated site audit, and Where Food Comes From, Inc. both owns the standard and issues the certificate.
What it covers
- Provenance of the ingredient: proof that the input was originally produced for human food and would otherwise have gone to a named food loss or waste destination
- Ten recognised waste destinations, including landfill, sewer, unharvested crops, land application, composting, anaerobic digestion and livestock feed
- Three designations: Upcycled Certified Ingredient at 95% or more upcycled input by weight, Upcycled Certified Product at 10% or more by weight, and Upcycled Certified Minimal Content Product below that
- An alternative compliance route by tonnage diverted, scaled to annual gross item sales: at least 5 tons a year under USD 2m of sales, rising to at least 200 tons a year above USD 50m
- Traceability and chain of custody from receipt of the upcycled input through to the finished item
- Secondary Waste accounting: the applicant must quantify consistent food loss occurring after the point of diversion and during manufacture, and an item with net negative diversion tonnage cannot be certified
- A food safety attestation supported by regulatory, GMP, GAP, HACCP or GFSI-benchmarked evidence
- Annual renewal with reporting of tons sourced and secondary waste for the preceding 12 months
- Documented suspension and withdrawal procedures, with 30 days to submit corrective action
- Eligibility beyond food: dietary supplements, pet food, cosmetics, personal care, edible packaging and cutlery
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- No organic requirement: certified inputs may be grown with synthetic pesticides and fertilisers
- No labour, wage or worker-safety standard anywhere in the standard
- No greenhouse gas, energy or emissions requirement; the impact metric is tonnage of food diverted, not carbon
- No packaging requirement, other than treating edible packaging as an ingredient
- No animal welfare requirement
- No requirement that the rest of the product be sustainable in any respect: 90% of an Upcycled Certified Product may be conventional ingredients
- The Minimal Content Product designation carries the mark with no minimum upcycled percentage and no tonnage threshold
- No on-site audit is required by the standard; compliance rests on applicant attestations on the certifier's templates plus supporting records
- No independent accreditation body over the certifier, which also owns the standard
- No published register of suspensions or withdrawals
- No nutritional or product-quality requirement
The scheme
| Issued by | Launched by the Upcycled Food Association in 2020; the standard is now owned and administered by Where Food Comes From, Inc., with oversight from the Upcycled Certified Expert Committee |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | Global. The standard is published in the United States in English, with no geographic restriction on applicants. |
| Audit and renewal | Annual: certification runs 12 months and renewal requires renewal documentation plus a successful technical review against the current standard version; items not renewed within 120 days of expiry are suspended |
| Cost | Not published. Fees are set in the Certification and Licensing Agreement with Where Food Comes From, Inc., which offers a cost-estimate request form at wfcf.io/certification-cost-estimate. |
What we read
Upcycled Certified Standard, Version 3.0, published 1 June 2025 by Where Food Comes From, Inc.
- standard_version_read and issuer transfer — UPCYCLED CERTIFIED STANDARD VERSION 3.0, Publication Date: June 1, 2025... The first version of the Standard was developed and launched by the Upcycled Food Association in 2020. Today the Standard is owned and administered by Where Food Com
- definition of upcycled — Upcycled foods and other items are: 1) Made from ingredients that would otherwise have ended up in any food waste destination. 2) Value-added. 3) For human consumption. 4) Have an auditable supply chain. 5) Indicate which ingredients are up
- percentage thresholds and the three designations — Upcycled Certified Ingredients must be composed of an aggregate of 95% or more Upcycled input(s)... Upcycled Certified Products must be composed of an aggregate of 10% or more Upcycled input(s) OR meet the tonnage diverted from waste thresh
- tonnage-diverted alternative scaled to sales — Tier 1: <$2 million Annual Gross Item Sales... Annual Upcycled Certified Product production results in 5 or more tons/year of Upcycled input(s)... Tier 5: >$50 million... 200 or more tons/year.
- proof of diversion and recognised waste destinations — recognized food loss or waste destinations are: 1) Landfill 2) Sewer/wastewater 3) Refuse/discard 4) Unharvested crops 5) Land application 6) Controlled combustion 7) Composting/aerobic digestion 8) Co-digestion/anaerobic digestion 9) Bioch
- secondary waste netting and the net negative bar — Items determined to have net negative food loss and waste tonnage impact cannot achieve Certification.
- independence_score, attestation-based review with no mandated site audit — Attestation: A template supplied by Where Food Comes From, Inc., whereby the Applicant or Participant can complete a written and signed statement confirming specific characteristics... Re-certification is contingent on the submission of ren
- enforcement_score, suspension and withdrawal — A Participant may be Suspended from Certification if they have failed to maintain compliance to the Standard... The Participant shall have 30 days to submit corrective action plans and evidence of implementation.
- renewal_period — Certification is an annual process and shall be renewed every twelve months... Certified items unable to complete renewal within 120 days of the Certification Expiration Date will be Suspended.
- cost_range and certifier — Third-party certification for products made with verified upcycled ingredients... For certification details and cost estimates, visit wfcf.io/certification-cost-estimate.
What we could not establish
Version 3.0 was read in full. The standard does not specify whether an on-site audit is ever conducted; it defines audit/review generically in the definitions section but mandates only document and attestation review plus a technical review at renewal. Independence is scored 2 on that basis; if Where Food Comes From conducts site audits under a separate programme document not read here, the score would move to 3. The Upcycled Certified Brand Guidelines, Certification and Licensing Agreement, and any published fee schedule were not retrieved. No public register of suspended or withdrawn items was located. The Upcycled Food Association's own certification page now redirects to Where Food Comes From, confirming the administration transfer, but the date of transfer was not established.
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.