26 March 2025
Great news for businesses committed to social sustainability in supply chains! A benchmarking assessment conducted in January 2025 confirmed that the Food Security Standard (FSS) effectively supports compliance with evolving European Union (EU) sustainability regulations.
The Importance of Certification in Sustainable Supply Chains
Companies today face increasing pressure to ensure responsible business practices throughout their supply chains. Consumers, stakeholders, and regulators are demanding greater transparency and accountability and are urging companies to take, document, and communicate sustainability measures. Therefore, the EU has introduced a range of legislation addressing critical issues such as forced labour, deforestation, and the violation of community rights, underlining the need for comprehensive sustainability strategies. This is where supply chain certification and the FSS come into play.
Conducted by legal experts, the recent benchmarking assessment highlights the FSS’ significant role in helping companies to meet the requirements of key frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and other sustainability laws.
Integrating Food Security into Sustainability Certification
The FSS was developed between 2017 and 2022 as a project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and actively managed by the German NGO Welthungerhilfe and sustainability consultancy Meo Carbon Solutions. It is an instrument for implementing human rights due diligence in agricultural production to ensure compliance with the human right to food and other cross-cutting human rights. Since 2022, when the standard was officially adopted to be used alongside existing sustainability certification, it has set criteria to protect and improve food security for local communities in agricultural supply chains. As the right to food is fundamental, it impacts many other human rights. Therefore, the FSS offers holistic human rights assessments and related due diligence obligations.
As part of our commitment to environmentally and socially sustainable supply chains, we offer the ISCC FSS add-on to complement ISCC EU or ISCC PLUS certification. With this add-on, companies can incorporate principles on human rights, centring the right to food into their sustainability certification strategies to ensure that agricultural production in their supply chains supports local food availability, access and stability and is, therefore, in line with human rights. By combining ISCC certification with the FSS add-on, companies demonstrate their commitment to protecting food security for vulnerable populations and fulfilling their legal due diligence obligations.
Benchmarking Confirms Food Security Standard as Compliance Support
The benchmarking results, published by Cattwyk Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG, demonstrate the significant contribution of integrating the FSS into certification to support compliance with EU human rights and environmental due diligence obligations. Key findings include:
- Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD): The FSS verifies compliance with all human rights-related and most agriculture-related environmental legal positions named in the CSDDD, providing companies with a reliable measure for identifying, assessing and minimising risks through on-site audits.
- EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR): The FSS supports EUDR compliance by verifying relevant legal positions, including human rights, land use rights and indigenous peoples’ rights, preventing forced evictions, and ensuring adherence to geolocation requirements.
- Conflict Minerals Regulation: The FSS enhances supply chain transparency and mitigates risks associated with human rights violations, especially regarding liberty and security, in raw material sourcing.
- EU Forced Labour Regulation (FLR): Compliance with the FLR’s ban on forced labour can be verified using FSS indicators such as written contractual agreements between workers, withholding of identity documents or passports, withholding wages and restricting freedom of movement in the certified company.
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): The qualitative impact of the FSS supports corporate sustainability reporting, particularly for European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) S2, workers in the value chain, and ESRS S3, affected communities.
Clear Claims for Companies Using the ISCC FSS Add-On
In addition to the benchmarking assessment, legal experts have developed claims that companies can apply when using the FSS, for example, by integrating the ISCC FSS add-on into their certified supply chains. These claims provide companies with clear, legally validated statements that demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and compliance, reinforcing due diligence efforts and enhancing stakeholder credibility. One of these claims, for example, refers to the role of the FSS in risk prioritisation under EU regulations.
A certificate such as the FSS, which verifies certain protected legal positions through an on-site audit by an independent auditor, provides a relatively high guarantee that an abstractly identified risk does not actually exist. Risk analysis resources can then be focused on other suppliers with a higher risk profile, in line with the principle of risk prioritisation common to all European sustainability legislation.
This statement furthermore reflects another central component of European due diligence: the two-stage risk analysis. Companies must carry out an abstract risk analysis through desk research or assessments at the national level and follow this up with a concrete risk analysis related to the specificities of the supplier in question. If a supplier in a region has been classified as high-risk at the abstract level, successful FSS certification can help to demonstrate that the supplier fulfils certain required due diligence obligations despite the national context and is a viable partner for EU-based companies.
Our Commitment to Strengthening Supply Chain Compliance
As a certification standard for sustainable supply chains, we support the fulfilment of legal requirements and offer the opportunity to demonstrate corporate responsibility credibly. The recent Cattwyk benchmarking assessment confirms the high value of the FSS in mitigating legal risks and ensuring the protection of human rights along the supply chain. It further equips certified companies with the possibility of using legally backed claims.
Looking to proactively address regulatory expectations using the ISCC FSS add-on while contributing to a more responsible and sustainable global supply network? Visit our Food Security Standard page for further details and information on how to get started!