Why does my coffee say “UTZ Certified” when your coffee is Rainforest Alliance Certified?
UTZ was a leading program for more sustainably grown coffee but the UTZ organization merged with the Rainforest Alliance in 2018. In July 2020, the newly merged organization launched a new Sustainable Agriculture Standard (SAS) for coffee production and the associated supply chain that combines the best of the former Rainforest Alliance SAS and the former UTZ standard.
Our coffee supplier and farmer partners have been actively working to become certified to the new standard which is why we are now calling our coffee Rainforest Alliance Certified. Going forward, our products will begin to display the new Rainforest Alliance logo which will replace the UTZ logo but there may be a few products that haven’t fully made the switch yet!
More details on the merger and the new standard the Rainforest Alliance launched can be found at https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/tag/2020-certification-program/