When It Comes to Food, Trust But Verify with Where Food Comes From

March 15, 2015
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Verified Source from Where Food Comes From

Walk down the typical supermarket aisle and you’re barraged from all sides by unsubstantiated marketing claims. What does it mean that a pig was “humanely raised,” that a cow was “grass fed” or that a chicken received “no added hormones” before it became legs, breasts and thighs?

As it turns out, there are independent, third-party companies that make their living verifying claims like these, and one of the nation’s leading firms is based right here in Colorado.

Called Where Food Comes From (WFCF) and headquartered in Castle Rock, the company was founded in 1995 to help meatpackers verify the age and source of the animals they processed. An outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (aka Mad Cow Disease) in U.S. cattle markets in 2003 sharply boosted demand for their services, and today WFCF gauges food producer compliance with everything from the USDA National Organic Standards to animal care and well-being practices to guidelines governing the label “Vegetarian Fed.”

The firm works with over 700 farmers and ranchers in Colorado and more than 10,000 across the globe, along with corporate clients like Whole Foods, Tyson Foods and McDonald’s.

WFCF also runs a labeling program for grocery stores and restaurants; approved products display the Where Food Comes From “Source Verified” seal along with a Quick Response (QR) code that brings curious shoppers or diners to a webpage with information about the product they’re thinking of buying. Be sure to look for the seal on your next shopping trip. WhereFoodComesFrom.com

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