Announcing the New 2027 Edition of The SRA’s Food Made Good Standard

Why the update?

Food Made Good was built on the idea that sustainability isn't a destination, but a journey. The Standard has been driving action in foodservice for over 16 years, with the first global version launched in 2023. The reason why it continues to work so well is that it continues to evolve. Every three years, The Sustainable Restaurant Association conducts an extensive review of the Food Made Good Standard to ensure it reflects the latest social and environmental research, policy and regulation, as well as the needs and realities of a diverse and global hospitality industry.

With the EU introducing the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (also called ECGT or ‘EmpCo’), designed to protect consumers from vague or deceptive environmental and social claims, this update was also timely. The updates to the Standard ensure that it meets the ECGT requirements for a certification and can remain a practical support for foodservice operations.

Juliane Caillouette Noble, CEO of The Sustainable Restaurant Association, said, “The choices foodservice businesses make every day reach far beyond their own operations. They inform global supply chains, influence how food is grown, caught and produced, affect the people who work throughout those systems and determine the impact on the natural world. Expectations of the sector are changing, too, from voices redefining luxury around the protection of hyper-local food heritage to large-scale operators setting much higher baselines for what it means to look after their teams. And where businesses are challenging convention and pioneering better ways of working, the Standard needs to recognise that progress, too.

“Over the past year, The SRA has brought together experts from around the world and across a wide range of disciplines to challenge and sharpen the Food Made Good Framework, so it reflects what is happening on the ground and what businesses need to act on next. Our role is to turn that insight into something businesses can use: asking the right questions and giving them locally relevant actions they can take, whatever their model or size. That is how individual actions build collective influence and, ultimately, much wider change.”

Expert counsel

Over the past 18 months, the Framework, question set and scoring methodology have been thoroughly reviewed by a variety of experts across the globe to ensure that Food Made Good remains the gold-standard certification for F&B. 

The consultation included perspectives from a wide range of countries and cultures, bringing in over 50 experts from across the globe. Contributors included academics, leading NGOs and industry experts specialising in sustainable food systems, hospitality, fair trading practices and labour relations and environmental impact; other sustainability programmes and certification schemes; and The SRA’s global partners, notably Green Dining Guide (Taiwan), SRA-Japan and Circular Hospitality Australia. (You can find more information about the contributors here.)

This broad spectrum of contributors has helped to ensure that Food Made Good is not only comprehensive and rigorous, but also brings in perspectives and insights from a myriad of global cultures and contexts. This helps to avoid bias and blind spots, while ensuring the framework works as best as possible across different regions, business models and business sizes.

Etelle Higonnet, Director at Coffee Watch, said of the consultation process, “I got involved in the consultation because I think there is great value for restaurants and other key actors in hospitality in this kind of sustainability Standard. Running a restaurant is incredibly hard, and helping busy folks in the sector get the quick, clear guidance that they need on thorny issues like making coffee ethical, is a big help. No one in hospitality wants to serve deforestation or child labour in their coffee, but knowing how exactly to take the right action is complex, and it's great that The SRA can lean in to assist.”

Cristina Liberati, Collaboration and Partnerships Lead at Smartfish AC, said, “I was honoured to be asked to contribute to the consultation on the revised Standard, because it allowed us to share the perspective of our organisation which works directly on the ground with small-scale fishing communities in Mexico. Despite their intentions to improve sustainability, Standards can often disfavour or exclude artisanal or small-scale producers. I applaud Food Made Good for their commitment to equity, and for considering every person in the food supply chain.” 

Joel Thomas, Director of Partnerships at Zero Foodprint Asia, said, “I think it’s important to align with like-minded organisations working towards the same goal of making nutritious, responsibly produced food more accessible. Farmers and chefs are intrinsically connected, and standards like Food Made Good can help hospitality businesses better understand where their food comes from and encourage more informed, positive choices”.

Scoring and methodology

While there haven’t been significant changes to the subject matter covered by the Standard, this expert consultation process has helped to refine and validate the updated scoring methodology, ensuring it places greater emphasis on the issues that matter most to hospitality businesses. Questions and scoring have also been adapted to ensure the Standard works better for different business types and sizes, while a new “Highly Commended” label has been developed to recognise exceptional practice and industry leadership in particular focus areas. More details on the scoring methodology can be found on The SRA’s website.

Every individual FMG submission goes through a structured assessment process. For EU clients, The SRA is introducing additional document review carried out by a third-party auditing partner, Intertek. Certification decisions for EU businesses — whether the business has achieved certification, and what their scores are — will be determined by the auditor, not by the team at The SRA. This ensures the certification process meets ECGT requirements for third-party verification. 

Improving the user experience

The team at The SRA has also introduced some positive changes that should improve the overall experience of completing the Food Made Good Standard. For example, recognising that there are many paths a business can take to have a positive impact, new options across the question set will better capture the variety of actions and initiatives in operations across the globe.  

The Food Made Good online platform has also been undergoing a full refresh, designed to make the submission process significantly more user friendly and intuitive. From January onwards, all accounts will be transferred to this new platform. 

Food Made Good Global V2 will come into effect from January 2027. For EU businesses, the new question set will be introduced from the end of September 2026 to support compliance with ECGT requirements. All businesses that currently hold a valid Food Made Good certification will be assessed against the new question set at their next audit cycle.

Driving sustainability through the hospitality sector

The SRA continues to make environmentally restorative and socially progressive policies and practices more achievable for forward-thinking businesses across the globe, helping to build a thriving, resilient and future-fit hospitality sector.

A robust, evidence-based, action-driven framework like Food Made Good provides clarity, operational guidance, external accountability and a shared language, meeting legislative requirements while also encouraging businesses to move beyond mere compliance. This edition of the Food Made Good Standard ensures that it can continue to be a useful tool for hospitality businesses everywhere, supporting the sector as it moves into a new era of greater accountability, transparency and meaningful action.

For more information or interview opportunities with The SRA, please contact Jocelyn Doyle, Head of Marketing & Communications at The Sustainable Restaurant Association, at jocelyn@thesra.org.