Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea Raise the Bar for Food Service Operators With New Plant-Based Foods and Animal Welfare Requirements | Milan, Italy — Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea, global sustainability certification programs run by the World Sustainability Organization (WSO), have updated their standards for restaurants, cafés, caterers, hotels and other tourism providers, elevating food service providers toward higher-welfare standards for animal proteins and the increased use of plant-based foods. The updated criteria mark another significant step forward by a major food and hospitality certifier to embed animal welfare and plant-based sourcing criteria as requirements businesses must meet to earn and keep certification.
Under the revised Friend of the Earth/Friend of the Sea Sustainable Restaurants standard, restaurants, cafés and food service companies must ensure at least 30% of menu offerings are plant-based. They must also source all seafood, chicken, eggs, pork and other animal proteins from producers that avoid the use of cages, crates and ongoing tethering, and that use humane slaughter methods. Meeting both requirements is mandatory to qualify for and retain certification. Over 500 restaurants globally are certified under the Sustainable Restaurants standard.
The companion Sustainable Tourism Facilities standard, which covers hotels, resorts and other tourism providers, has also been updated to require making at least 30% of menu offerings plant-based, sourcing animal proteins only from producers that avoid cages, crates and ongoing tethering and that use humane slaughter, or reducing food waste by 30% from the operator’s existing baseline.
“Pairing meaningful animal welfare requirements with a strong plant-based foods benchmark is exactly the kind of standard needed for true sustainability,” said Ribbin Nichapa, Corporate Engagement Manager at Lever Foundation, which worked with the organizations on their new standards. “The updated policies from Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea set a clear, credible, and common-sense standard that gives certified restaurants, hotels and food service companies something meaningful to point to with their customers. We celebrate them and the World Sustainability Organization for raising the bar and driving a more sustainable food system.”
The World Sustainability Organization’s updated standards are part of a broader shift across the sustainability certification landscape toward embedding animal welfare and plant-based foods criteria directly into certification requirements. For example, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, which certifies hotels and restaurants, introduced its first Food and Beverage Standard earlier this year, which included a requirement that at least 30% of main dishes be plant-based.
