“IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT WHAT WE DO SELL—BUT WHAT WE WON’T SELL,” THE GROCER SAID.
Since 1980, Whole Foods Market has been holding the products on its shelves to a high standard, banning certain ingredients that don’t fit with the retailer’s vision.
In just the last couple of years, Whole Foods has added more than 100 ingredients to its no-sell list, bringing the total to more than 400 banned food and body care products.
When the company reviews ingredients, “we consider the interconnected effects of the way that food is processed and regulated by authorities in the U.S., EU, Canada and beyond,” Whole Foods said.
Through its quality-standards mission, Whole Foods sells products that contain ingredients that it believes are “the best ingredients” for their customers as well as the planet, the company said.
In 1992, the company banned MSG; in 2003, hydrogenated oils; and high-fructose corn syrup in 2011. Hydrogenated fats and other banned ingredients such as sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, along with more than 230 colors, preservatives, flavors and other ingredients are not accepted in products at Whole Foods Markets.
“It’s not just about what we do sell—but what we won’t sell,” stated the company.
Whole Foods Market also believes that customers should know where their food comes from, how it’s grown, as well as what ingredients are used, said a company spokesperson.
Whole Foods’ Sourced for Good is a third-party certification program, launched in 2021, that helps customers identify products that support workers, communities and environmental stewardship.
When Sourced for Good products are bought from Whole Foods, those purchased items contribute to fair wages, ethical trade, improved health care access, scholarships, planting trees and more.
“Part of our aspiration is to empower our customers to shop in a way that’s aligned with their values. The more transparency we can provide—whether it’s to sourcing, to fishing methods, to growing methods, to animal environments on farms—all of that we see as good and positive,” said Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Whole Foods Market chief marketing and communications officer, during Adweek’s Challenger Brands Summit earlier this year, where she highlighted some of the company’s sustainability initiatives.
Over the years, the company has also made some changes in its packaging and plastics. In 2019, Whole Foods became the first national grocer to ban plastic straws, eliminating more than 20 million plastic straws annually, said a company spokesperson. That same year, Whole Foods replaced all plastic rotisserie chicken domes with bags, using approximately 70% less plastic and saving an estimated nearly 1.7 million pounds of plastic annually.
Foam meat packaging trays have been removed from all Whole Foods stores in the U.S. and Canada, and foam-based food service packaging has been removed as well.
“Our commitment is ongoing, and we're working on new programs to further reduce our single-use plastics footprint,” said a company spokesperson.
Food waste is another issue that Whole Foods is addressing with its composting programs, and use of waste recycling system Grind2Energy, which has helped to divert 12,500 tons of food waste at Whole Foods Market stores since 2014.
In 2020, Whole Foods Market launched Nourishing Our Neighborhoods, which donates refrigerated vans to community-based food rescue and redistribution programs to transport food to communities within 18 markets across the United States and Canada, said the company. There have been 31 vans donated—rescuing 20,000 pounds of food a week per vehicle, diverting 29,120,000 pounds of food per year from landfills and sharing 242,666,6667 meals over the 10-year expected lifetime of each van.
“We’re on a long, never-ending journey of continuous improvement to identify what we can do better, where we can raise the bar and where we can learn more,” Gafsi Oblisk said.