GoodPop, LesserEvil, Quinn and Evergreen have banded their better-for-you brand equity together to launch The Good Food Collective (GFC) in order to advocate for more transparency and higher standards in the food industry during this “pivotal decade in U.S. food policy,” the collective stated.
“We believe that every person deserves access to honest, transparent information about the food they consume,” said Daniel Goetz, GoodPop founder and CEO, in a press release. “By raising our standards across the board, we can create a healthier, more informed future for all consumers.”
The collective’s first order of business is advocacy around nutrition labeling on front-of-packs. GFC submitted a formal comment on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labeling proposed rule ahead of the July 15 deadline, urging the agency to consider more consumer-friendly warning schemes that also integrate opportunities to educate shoppers about products high in added sugars, sodium and saturated fats.
GFC members also include Interact Brands, Actual Veggies, Sweet Nothings, Daily Crunch, Rudi’s Bakery, New Primal, Dr. Praeger’s, Sunnie, Little Sesame, Harken Sweets, Lentiful, Paktli, Sattva Vida, Brass Roots, I Eat My Greens, Globowl, Huxley, ZICO, Plantstrong, Culture Pop Soda and others. The collective aims to secure 30 members by the end of the year.
Strength will come in numbers, it believes, and Interact helped bring a design edge to GFC’s work thus far. Alongside the formal comment, the branding agency submitted a front-of-pack graphic QR code design that allows consumers to quickly access a product’s nutritional information.
“We’ve consistently navigated the challenge of balancing essential nutritional claims with brand identity – ensuring one doesn’t overshadow the other,” said Interact Brands executive creative director Dan Gladden, about the proposed design. “This is about more than just compliance; it’s about crafting an information design that informs, enhances transparency, and seamlessly integrates with great branding – shaping packaging for years to come.”
While GoodPop has been outspoken in the past about its efforts to reduce sugar across the food system, and LesserEvil has taken an active role in similar efforts including the 2022 launch of the Clean Oil Crew, this new group takes a broader-reaching nutritional focus and aims to support regulation that “encourages fair play and allows for innovation.”
The GFC’s debut comes amidst heightened awareness and mainstream conversation around transparency and nutrition across the U.S. food system due to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.
In August, the Trump Administration’s MAHA Commission is expected to release its second report, outlining a roadmap for the industry to tackle issues it has identified including the prevalence of ultraprocessed foods, synthetic dyes and seed oils in the food supply. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also stated his intent to take over the review of the Dietary Guidelines for America, which is reviewed and updated by an independent panel of science and nutrition experts every five years.
The latest version of the DGA was released during the Trump Administration’s first term. Kennedy has asserted he will cut down the 164-page document to just four pages and focus on encouraging Americans to eat whole, unprocessed foods. While most Americans have reported they do not actively follow the recommendations of the DGA, a massive scaling back of the document could result in significant cuts to the science-based advice that the document has been built upon and lead to deregulatory actions within federally-funded food programs such as school lunches and meals served to military service members.
