The Non-UPF Verification Process: From Submission to Certification – WISEcode

Non-UPF Verification is WISEcode's certification program for food and beverage brands whose products meet the WISEcode Standard for non-ultra-processed status. Verified products earn the right to display the Non-UPF Verified Shield on-pack and in marketing materials. In WISEcode AI the whole flow runs inside your Portfolio: publish the product, start verification, attest, pay, download your assets. This article walks through it end to end.

Who can apply

Any brand with a packaged food or beverage product can verify. There is no minimum company size and no minimum SKU count. Products that do not meet the Standard today still show in your Portfolio with the reasons, so you can use the scoring to plan reformulation. Categories outside the Standard (infant formula, medical foods, supplements, alcohol, animal feed, unpackaged goods) are not scored and cannot be verified.

What you'll need before you start

The product in your Portfolio with its full ingredient declaration exactly as it appears on-pack, in descending order by weight, including sub-ingredients for every compound ingredient.
A complete Nutrition Facts panel with serving size, calories and the added-sugar line (needed for the 20% sugar threshold).
Every ingredient check settled. Ingredients WISEcode has not seen before go to the Science Team first; the row shows “With WISEcode, about a day”.
A UPC under a GS1 prefix granted to your organization, so the product can be published.

Step 1: Publish the product

Verification covers Published products only. Add the product through chat or a catalog CSV, clear anything in Needs work, and publish it. WISEcode evaluates every published product against the Non-UPF standard automatically; there is no separate submission.

Step 2: Check the verification lens

In Portfolio, the third question — “Does it have the NON-UPF shield?” — shows every published product in one of five states:

State	What it means
Ready to verify	Qualifies (Minimal, Light or Moderate with no Unique Ingredient of Concern). Start whenever you like.
In verification	Attestation or payment is open.
NON-UPF Verified	Shield earned. Download your badge.
Not eligible	Scores ultra-processed today.
Not ready yet	Edits are waiting to publish, or a review still has to finish.

Step 3: Start verification

From Portfolio — filter the verification lens to Ready to verify, select the products (selecting all is recommended) and start verification. Multiple products can be verified in a single pass.
From chat — ask “Verify NON-UPF on my ready products” or “Start verification for these five UPCs.” Chat opens the verification page with those products selected.
From the WISEcode AI home — the Verify your NON-UPF products card opens the verification page when you have products to verify; otherwise it reads “Open my UPF report” and opens your Portfolio UPF Report dashboard.

Step 4: Attest and pay

Attest that the ingredient statement on file matches what is currently on the label for each product.
Pay in-app. Pricing is shown before checkout and scales with the number of products you are verifying.

Verification completes at payment. Each product moves to NON-UPF Verified and receives a unique verification ID.

Step 5: Download your assets

From the Marketing Assets button at the top of Portfolio you can download, for every verified product: the signed certificate PDF, the Shield in high-resolution PNG and SVG with a dark-mode variant, social templates, and the usage guidelines. Placement rules are in The Non-UPF Verified Shield: Usage Guidelines for Packaging and Retail.

If a product shows Not eligible

It scores ultra-processed today. Ask chat to audit it — “Why isn’t UPC … eligible for NON-UPF?” — or open the Product Insights dashboard (“Audit a product”) to see which ingredients or sugar load drive the score and what would move it. Reformulate, update the ingredient list through chat, publish the edits, and the product is re-evaluated automatically. See Common Reasons Products Fail Verification (and How to Fix Them) and Reformulation Roadmap: Moving Toward Non-UPF Status.

Timelines

With complete data, verification finishes in the same session: the evaluation is automatic and the Shield is issued at payment. The only wait is an ingredient with the Science Team (“With WISEcode, about a day”), during which the product shows Not ready yet.

Renewal and ongoing compliance

Verification is tied to a specific formulation. If you change an ingredient, supplier or processing method that affects scoring, update the product through chat, publish the edits, and verify the new formulation before continuing to use the mark. Expiration and renewal tracking inside WISEcode AI arrives after the Beta; until then, re-verify whenever a formulation changes.

Cost

Pricing is based on the number of products you verify and is shown in-app before checkout.

Next steps

Questions?

Submit a request and a member of the WISEcode team will review it and get back to you.