Supply chain logistics can be complex. So, in order to get the wheels of sustainable and ethical change rolling, producers often use a practice known as mass balance to begin incorporating and tracking the use of Fairtrade and other ethically sourced ingredients – but has the industry leaned into mass balance for too long? ⚖️ First, what is Mass Balance? The practice is commonly used for ingredients like cocoa, sugar, tea, fruit juices and palm oil. Using the mass balance approach, a portion of the ingredients are sourced from Fairtrade- and Rainforest Alliance-certified suppliers and then processed and combined with bulk, non-certified inputs. The total volume of certified inputs is then audited and tracked as it moves through the supply chain. 🎯 What’s the Concern? The continued use of mass balance – without targets to improve or transition an entire supply chain – diminishes transparency for the consumer and is off-mission as it doesn’t help to continually improve farmer wages long term, said founder and CEO of GOOD Sam, Heather Terry. 💭 “It's an ethical question really because the issue is that, inherently, mass balance isn't bad or good,” she said. “It's just a process that happens. The problem is that we mark things Fairtrade Certified or Ethically Sourced and the output isn't necessarily that – that's the rub.” According to Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, a mass balance approach can help remove cost barriers and logistical hurdles that often prevent companies from using any ethically sourced ingredients. Mass balance solves the “urgent need” for suppliers to benefit from “better terms of trade,” Fairtrade claims. - Fairtrade products made via mass balance calculations are denoted by the standard symbol followed by a right-facing arrow.
- The world’s three largest chocolate companies, Mondelez, Mars and The Ferrero Group, all use mass balance.
🍫 Mondelez – which launched its Cocoa Life initiative in 2021 as a vow to improve the social and environmental practices of its cocoa supply chain – claims the approach allows them to invest more in farmers, rather than making investments solely to keep cocoa beans separate. Mars claims that 68% of the cocoa it purchased this year was Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance or third-party verified on mass balance sourcing methods. 🏭 But Terry believes large producers could have a greater impact by continuing to actively move the industry toward fully ethical and sustainable chocolate rather than stopping at just a percentage of some: “This is not a small producer. This is a big producer problem. They have the power to change the system and they repeatedly choose not to.” | 
