Where Food Comes From Care Certified
ANIMAL WELFARE
CONFIDENCE MEDIUM · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
Care Certified is a for-profit verification company's own branded programme, not an independently governed standard. Where Food Comes From, Inc. is a Nasdaq-listed company that wrote the standard, owns the mark, engages the auditors and makes the certification decision. Its own standards page states the criteria 'were written and developed by an internal team', with an Expert Committee and Producer Advisory Board reviewing rather than owning them. There is no external accreditation body behind the programme. That is a different structure from a standard held by a separate body, and it is the single most important thing to know about the badge. On content, the beef standard is genuinely broad, covering land and water inventory, grazing plans, manure logs, worker contracts and a five-year no-land-conversion clause on feed. What it mostly asks is that the operation hold a written plan. Very few criteria set a measured threshold; the exceptions are the under-10% electric prod cap and two auto-fail clauses for observed abuse. Scale is small: the programme's own dairy page reports 26,860 certified dairy animals, so unlike FARM Animal Care this mark is not near-universal. It carries no emissions data and no packaging content at all.
What it covers
- three pillars: Animal Care, Environmental Stewardship, People and Community
- beef, dairy, pork, poultry and aquaculture standards
- documented animal husbandry training programme and BQA certification of handlers
- documented animal care policy, biosecurity plan and traceability records
- two auto-fail clauses: observed willful animal abuse or worker abuse means no certification
- electric prod use capped at under 10% of cattle
- baseline land, water and biodiversity inventory plus written grazing management plan
- feed not sourced from land converted from grazing, riparian or forest within five years
- manure storage, land application and application logs
- worker wage, contract, safety, grievance and housing criteria
- annual on-site audit and annual standard review by an Expert Committee and Producer Advisory Board
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- no greenhouse gas quantification and no Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions inventory
- carbon appears only as a stated purpose and as an item in a soil monitoring list
- no packaging, recyclability or material criteria
- no numeric stocking density or space allowance per animal
- no cage, crate or tie-stall prohibition in the standard text reviewed
- no outdoor access or pasture requirement
- no water use or energy consumption reduction target, only a plan and an assessment
- most criteria are satisfied by holding a written plan rather than by meeting a measured outcome
- standards not fully published: 'available upon request' for dairy, pork and poultry
- no published sanction, suspension or decertification register
- no published fee schedule
- no external accreditation of the programme as a conformity assessment scheme
The scheme
| Issued by | Where Food Comes From, Inc. (Nasdaq: WFCF), Castle Rock, Colorado |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | United States, primarily; WFCF operates internationally but the CARE standards reviewed are written around US production systems, BQA training and US labour law |
| Audit and renewal | Annual on-site audit; standards formally reviewed annually. Certificate validity period not published. |
| Cost | Not published |
What we read
WFCF CARE Certified Cow/Calf & Stocker/Backgrounder Standard for the Beef Industry, 2024, 3rd Edition, revised 1/2/2024, original 07/09/19; wfcfcare.com dairy, standards and programme pages as at July 2026
- issuer and corporate structure — Nasdaq Capital Market, ticker WFCF; 'seven divisions: IMI Global, International Certification Services, Postelsia, Sterling Solutions, SureHarvest, Validus Verification Services and Where Food Comes From Organic'
- independence_score — standard written internally by the programme owner — The CARE Certified Standards were written and developed by an internal team.
- what_it_covers — annual audit and committee review — CARE Certified Standards are reviewed annually by an Expert Committee as well as a Producer Advisory Board. ... Annual onsite audits conducted by independent auditors
- what_it_omits — standards not fully published — Standards available upon request. Please email info@wherefoodcomesfrom.com
- what_it_covers — three pillars and species — farms and ranches are following guidelines specific to Animal Care, Environmental Stewardship and People and Community
- what_it_covers — pillar purposes — The purpose of the Environmental Stewardship Standard is to support the maintenance of a sustainable environment for future generations by promoting practices that encourage waste reduction, management of natural and renewable resources, re
- what_it_covers — feed land conversion clause — ES6b. Feed is produced and/or sourced from locations that have not converted grazing lands, riparian areas, or forest into cropped land within the last five (5) years.
- what_it_covers — auto-fail clauses — AC6a. No willful acts of abuse or neglect are observed during the audit. If a willful act of abuse or neglect is observed, the site will not be certified.
- what_it_covers — electric prod threshold — The operation uses only approved handling aids to drive or process cattle, minimizing electric prod use. The electric prod is used on less than 10% of ...
- rigor_score — criteria are plan-and-document based — ES5a. An energy management plan for the operation has been developed and elements related to vehicles, equipment, lighting, heating, water systems and other energy-use areas are evaluated / assessed to implement improvement opportunities.
- what_it_omits — no GHG inventory; carbon appears only in a monitoring list — Monitoring program to track progress toward objectives related to forage management, infrastructure management and improvements, soil/soil carbon, water, vegetation, and wildlife
- yko_assessment — scale of the dairy programme — 26,860 CARE Certified Dairy Animals
- what_it_covers — CARE is a proprietary WFCF programme — Proprietary Programs — CARE Certified: 'a suite of sustainability standards that certifies participating farmers and ranchers are implementing exceptional practices'
What we could not establish
Only the beef cow/calf standard and the feedyard standard are publicly downloadable; dairy, pork and poultry standards are 'available upon request', so the omissions list is grounded in the beef standard text plus the pillar summaries published for dairy and is stated as such. Could not establish: certificate validity period, fee schedule, sanction or appeals procedure, auditor qualification requirements, or whether auditors are WFCF employees or contractors — none is published. The programme has an Environmental Stewardship pillar with real land, water, feed-sourcing and manure content, so it would be wrong to say it has no environmental criteria at all; the accurate finding is that it has no emissions accounting and no packaging content, and that its environmental criteria are largely plan-and-monitor rather than threshold-based. Note that WFCF's Organic division is a USDA-accredited certifying agent, but that accreditation does not extend to CARE Certified. Number of total certified operations across all species not published.
Who holds it
Scored companies carrying this mark, highest first. Holding it is not the same as scoring well — the mark is one input of six.
| Company | Scope held | YKO score |
|---|---|---|
| Fairlife | Not stated | 15.5 |
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.