MPM Products recertifies as a B Corp under B Lab's audited new standards

First cohort, tougher rulebook. A UK cat food maker is one of 20 British companies in the first group to certify under B Lab's rewritten B Corp standards, the owner of Applaws, Reveal and Encore said on October 2nd, 2026. For premium pet brands that sell on sustainability claims, the badge now comes with an outside assurance provider, and B Lab argues it now carries legal weight in the EU too.

The new badge comes with an auditor attached

MPM Products, the UK-based group behind the three cat brands, says this is its third B Lab certification, counting the first in 2021, a start date its listing in B Lab's company directory confirms. The directory, retrieved October 5th, 2026, shows MPM on standards version 2.2 and in Year 0 of a five-year cycle.

The rewrite is substantial. The old model asked companies to score at least 80 of 200 points on the B Impact Assessment. Under the new one, which B Lab brands as B Lab Standards V2, companies must meet requirements across seven impact topics, from climate action and human rights to fair work, with tougher requirements for larger companies.

Verification also moves outside B Lab. Companies on the new standards are certified by an independent, B Lab-approved third party assurance provider meeting requirements based on ISO 17021-1, according to B Lab. The cycle stretches from three years to five, with added requirements at Years 3 and 5. Recertifications of existing B Corps began in January 2026, and new companies could certify from March.

The company-reported figures attached to the announcement are more than 428M pet meals sold in 2025 and more than 7.7M meals donated since 2021. Joy Stevenson, MPM's Impact Manager for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), said recertification "isn't the end point" and that it "gives us a stronger framework for what comes next."

Europe's label law makes the badge worth more

The timing matters because of Brussels. The EU's Empowering Consumers directive, which member states must apply from September 27th, 2026, bans sustainability labels that are neither established by public authorities nor based on a certification scheme, which the directive defines as one with independent third-party monitoring.

B Lab has told companies that certification under the new standards will meet the legal requirements for being a valid sustainability label in the EU. That is B Lab's own position, not a regulator's ruling. If it holds, a B Corp logo on a pouch sold in the EU shifts from a marketing asset to a compliance asset.

That matters for a business priced as an export story. When 3i agreed in June 2025 to sell MPM to Partners Group, it put its own estimated gross proceeds at about £400M and said international sales were about 80% of revenue. 3i put the return at 3.2x invested capital including proceeds already received, which implies 3i put in at least £125M after investing in December 2020.

Older pet badges still run on the old rulebook

Other pet food B Corps have not reached the new model yet. Tails.com's operator, Tailsco, and Canada's Open Farm both certified in 2024 and are listed on standards version 1.6, according to B Lab's directory, with Tailsco certified since April 2024 and Open Farm since May 2024. Both are due to face the new rules at their next recertification.

If we had to guess, that renewal wave will separate pet brands that can document supply chain and labor practices from those that relied on a strong point score. How many clear the new bar on the first try is the thing to watch.

MPM moved early. The rest of the category now has a dated benchmark.

Source: MPM Products via PR Newswire