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Ingredients Program

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Fair Trade Certified Ingredients

From coffee ice cream to green tea-flavored mints to energy bars full of chocolate chips, many Fair Trade Certified™ (FTC) products can also be used as ingredients. However in many cases not all of the ingredients in what we call "composite products" can be FTC because there are no Fair Trade standards for them (e.g. milk in ice cream, or rolled oats in an energy bar). Other ingredients, like sugar, are important US-grown products that manufacturers might prefer to source domestically.

TransFair USA has devised a Composite Product Policy for the formulation and labeling of such products. You can download our policy here.

To avoid consumer confusion and to be transparent about which ingredients are Fair Trade Certified in a composite product we have introduced the "Ingredient-Specific" and the "Ingredients" label. Examples are pictured here below:

The following rules apply:

A product can carry the traditional "Fair Trade Certified" label as long as:

  • All ingredients that can be Fair Trade Certified are Fair Trade Certified, the FTC ingredient(s) constitutes more than 50% of the dry weight of the product and no formulation exemption has been issued.

    If a product bears an Ingredient-Specific or Ingredients FTC label (denoting multiple ingredients), then one of the following occurred in the formulation of the product:

    • The Fair Trade Certified ingredient(s) constitute less than 50% of the dry weight of the product, but the ingredient(s) are significant to the formulation of the product. Because the product is less than 50% of the dry weight of the product, the FTC ingredient is called out via the ingredient-specific label.
    • An exemption has been granted based upon the following:
      • The particular origin of a Fair Trade certifiable ingredient or formulation that is necessary to make that ingredient is not currently available in the Fair Trade system
      • The Fair Trade certifiable ingredient is grown in the U.S. and therefore the ingredient was sourced domestically
      • The ingredient is "marginal" and constitutes less than 1% of the product.

    For any and all of these cases TransFair USA can grant an exemption for the certification of that ingredient. Only the FTC specific ingredient(s) denoted on the label are certified.

    The Fair Trade Certified ingredients must also be denoted on the ingredients panel.

    If you are interested in formulating and labeling a composite product, please fill out a Product Profile Application and send it to ingredients@transfairusa.org. All composite product manufacturers are required to sign TransFair USA certification agreements.

    To find Fair Trade Certified ingredient suppliers, click here.

    Any questions? Please write to ingredients@transfairusa.org.

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    This page last updated: August 2, 2007
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