Investments (Details) (Mascoma [Member])	Sep. 29, 2012
Mascoma [Member]
Investment [Line Items]
Cost Method Investments Percentage	18.65%

The percentage of ownership of common stock in investee accounted for under the cost method of accounting.

No definition available.

Name:	stkl_CostMethodInvestmentsPercentage
Namespace Prefix:	stkl_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant