Days before sweeping new EU rules on sustainability marketing begin to apply, one of the world’s largest premium chocolate companies has confirmed a highly visible change to its packaging.
Lindt & Sprüngli is removing its company-owned Farming Program logo from packs and replacing it with the Rainforest Alliance seal on many products, the company told CocoaRadar.
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“As part of our efforts to comply with the Directive, we have reviewed and adapted our consumer-facing communication. On packaging, the Lindt & Sprüngli Farming Program logo is being removed and replaced with the Rainforest Alliance seal on many of our products,” a Lindt & Sprüngli spokesperson said.
The move offers an early indication of how the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive – widely known as EmpCo – will reshape sustainability communication and branding across the cocoa and chocolate sector.
From 27 September, chocolate companies selling to EU consumers will face stricter restrictions on company-owned sustainability labels, generic environmental language and claims that make an entire product appear environmentally beneficial when the evidence concerns only one ingredient or part of the business.
A spokesperson for industry watchdog The Voice Network said: "Credible sustainability claims are a basic requirement for building consumer trust and providing a foundation for strong sustainability initiatives. Many also described the directive as a welcome ‘clean-up’ of less professional initiatives and labels, which were often perceived as unreliable and as contributing to consumer confusion."
The directive is not designed to determine whether cocoa farmers earn a living income or whether child labour and deforestation have been eliminated. It regulates what companies can tell consumers about those issues – and what evidence, governance and independent scrutiny must sit behind their words and symbols.
That distinction is already pushing the industry towards three broad responses: removing proprietary logos, relying more heavily on established certification schemes, or attempting to transform private programmes into open, independently verified systems.