Standards and CoCo Score

CoCo Sapiens Standards: a 360-degree look at food

In the global market, food has become just another commodity: it is produced wherever it is cheapest and sold to the highest bidder. To find your way in that market there is one seal for organic, another for animal welfare, another for fair trade, another for packaging. All of them are needed, but each one looks at a single thing: an organic food can come wrapped in plastic, or from patented seeds with opaque conditions that restrict the free market.

We start somewhere else: with the person who eats. CoCo comes from Conscious Consumer. We give you information and transparency so that you decide.

That is why we work with producers who produce to feed their territory and to keep their land alive, not to squeeze it dry. And we look at everything at once: the land, what is in the food, the climate, water, animals, people, packaging, seeds and breeds, and food waste.

We ask the same of everyone, in every country.

Request the full standards

Find out more

Are you a conscious consumer? When there are certified products, you will find their CoCo Score on the label and in the QR code. On this website we tell you how to buy through short supply chains or directly from the producer, and in the producers section you will find information on each one and how to get in touch with them.

Are you a producer? See how to join and try what your wheel would look like.

Food Origin · Circular Farm · CoCo Sapiens 360

Placa CoCo Sapiens Food Origin

Food Origin recognises products with the identity of their land, made right there.

Placa CoCo Sapiens Circular Farm

CoCo Sapiens Circular Farm recognises farms that close the loop with what they produce themselves.

Placa CoCo Sapiens Restaurant 360°Placa CoCo Sapiens Shop 360°

CoCo Sapiens 360 is for shops and restaurants that sell mostly through short supply chains and work with CoCo Sapiens producers.

Food Origin

Food Origin recognises products whose identity comes from a territory and its know-how, and that are made right there: for example, Røst stockfish, chocolate made where the cacao grows, or vanilla from its own land.

To receive it, the product:

  1. is linked to its territory through the climate, tradition or know-how of the people who make it;
  2. is made at origin;
  3. leaves most of its value there, with fair trade as a minimum;
  4. can be traced back to its producer;
  5. if it is fish, states the species, fishing method, stock and season.

Food Origin does not say whether a product is short supply chain: that depends on where you are. It builds on FAO’s idea of “origin-linked quality”.

CoCo Sapiens Circular Farm

CoCo Sapiens Circular Farm recognises farms that close the loop with their own resources. They must meet all six conditions at once:

  1. at least 3 types of crop;
  2. at least one animal species under managed grazing on the farm;
  3. all organic fertiliser comes from the farm itself;
  4. at least 80% of the animals’ feed is produced on the farm;
  5. no waste that cannot be composted;
  6. own seed, or identified local varieties and breeds.

We check this on a visit and review it every year. It is a farm distinction: it appears on the farm’s profile and never on packaging. It builds on FAO’s principles of agroecology.

Certification and distinctions

CoCo Sapiens Certified® is our certification: the product shows its CoCo Score, checked by an independent certification body in its country.

Everything else we review ourselves, with visits and each year’s data:

  • Member producer has committed to our standards and is working to certify its products.
  • Member processor makes products from what other producers grow, names them on its profile, and meets our standards along the whole chain.
  • Member producer organisation sells only products from member producers.
  • Food Origin a product with the identity of its land, made right there.
  • CoCo Sapiens Circular Farm a farm that closes the loop with what it produces itself.
  • CoCo Sapiens 360 a restaurant or shop that sells mostly through short supply chains and works with our producers.

CoCo Sapiens 360° restaurants and shops

Restaurants and shops with this plaque buy directly from producers. At least half of what they offer comes from short supply chains, and of that share, at least 20% comes from CoCo Sapiens producers.

How we know

  1. Producers tell us that they sell to the business.
  2. Every year, the business shows us its purchase data.
  3. A member of CoCo Sapiens reviews that data.

It is a distinction granted by CoCo Sapiens with public criteria.

Validity

The plaque is valid for one year. If the business does not submit its data for the following year, the plaque and its page on the website are withdrawn.

Member producer organisations

A producer organisation that is a member of CoCo Sapiens sells only products from member producers, without producing or processing them itself: for example, a fishers’ cooperative where several boats sell through one company. We check that everything it sells meets the standards.