Information on environmental impact can influence customers to avoid carbon-heavy food selections, suggests a new study.
Highlights:
Climate impact labels on items like red meat are an effective approach to convince people to avoid choosing options that are bad for the environment.
- Meat (what about dairy) consumption is a major contributor to diet-related greenhouse gas emissions
- Climate impact menu labels, particularly those with negative framing that highlight high-climate impact items (i.e., red meat), was a successful method for reducing red meat selections
- It also encouraged people to make more environmentally sustainable restaurant meal choices
Front-of-Package Food Labels Encourage Healthier Eating: Study
Nutrition labels on front of food packaging can promote healthier food choices, reports a new study.
Nutrition labels on front of food packaging can promote healthier food choices, reports a new study.
‘Climate impact labels on items like red meat are an effective approach to convince people to stop choosing food items that harm the environment.’
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Eating Environmentally Sustainable Food
Policymakers have been debating how to persuade consumers to eat less carbon-intensive foods. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in April urged world leaders, particularly those in affluent countries, to assist in a transition to sustainable, healthful, low-emissions diets.Advertisement
EU Says British 'Traffic Light' Food Labels Need to be Clearer
Britain has been urged by the EU to answer complaints about its traffic light anti-obesity food label system.
Britain has been urged by the EU to answer complaints about its traffic light anti-obesity food label system.
Is it Advisable to Advocate Eating Less Meat
In the United Kingdom, Henry Dimbleby, the government's food Tsar, recently stated that telling people to eat less meat is politically untenable. Approximately 85% of agricultural land in England is used as grazing pasture for animals such as cows or to grow food for livestock.Advertisement
US Regulators Urge To Include More Detail About Added Sugars on Food Labels
The Food and Drug Administration has urged food manufacturers to express the amount of sugar in teaspoons as well as grams for people to understand better.
The Food and Drug Administration has urged food manufacturers to express the amount of sugar in teaspoons as well as grams for people to understand better.
Effect of Having Climate Impact Condition Menu
The low–climate impact condition menu stated, “This item is environmentally sustainable. It has low greenhouse gas emissions and a low contribution to climate change.” The high–climate impact condition menu said, “This item is not environmentally sustainable. It has high greenhouse gas emissions and a high contribution to climate change.”When menus exhibited high-climate effect labels, 23.5% more participants chose a sustainable meal item, while 9.9% more participants chose a sustainable menu item when menus displayed low-climate impact labels. According to a mean perceived healthfulness score, participants who chose a sustainable item assessed their order as healthier than those who chose an unsustainable item across all experimental conditions.
The study authors, from Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities, said, “Animal-based food production, primarily driven by beef production, is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is an important modifiable contributor to climate change.
Food Labels to Display Food Details More Clearly for the Welfare of Customers
Restaurants and other businesses need to tell customers if their food could trigger allergies or raise other health concerns in a new EU labeling rule taking effect on Saturday.
Restaurants and other businesses need to tell customers if their food could trigger allergies or raise other health concerns in a new EU labeling rule taking effect on Saturday.
Meat Consumption in United States
“In the United States, meat consumption and, red meat consumption, consistently exceeds recommended levels based on national dietary guidelines. Shifting current dietary patterns toward more sustainable diets with lower amounts of red meat consumed could reduce diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 55%.”Reducing Diet-Related Greenhouse gas Emissions
They discovered that alerting individuals about a food's negative environmental implications were more successful than informing them about a food's more sustainable choice.The authors said, “We found that labelling red meat items with negatively framed, red high–climate impact labels was more effective at increasing sustainable selections than labelling non–red meat items with positively framed, green low–climate impact labels.”
Source-Medindia
