World leaders attended the COP26 summit in Glasgow to discuss a raft of strategies to tackle climate change, and as food is responsible for 26% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, you would hope this featured high up on the agenda.

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Food Labelling Services comments:

At present, there are no internationally agreed standards for environmental sustainability labelling and no agreement on what ‘sustainable production’ should measure: carbon dioxide release, water use, biodiversity impact? Consequently, there is no easy way for consumers to make evidence-based purchasing decisions about the environmental impact of their diet. ‘Eco-labelling’ of foods would enable consumers to compare the environmental footprint of different foods and vote with their wallets. More importantly, eco-labelling would be a powerful driver of change in the food industry. Experience has already shown that mandatory nutritional labelling has helped incentivise companies to reformulate foods, bringing health benefits that go far beyond individual changes in consumer purchasing. Eco-labelling could achieve the same for environmental credentials and drive rapid improvements in food sustainability. 

The format should be easy to understand and consistent across all food groups. The EU are developing their own environmental labelling standard, therefore this will be another difference between EU and UK labels.