Shoppers demand carbon food labels

A total of 432 shoppers across all of the UK’s major supermarkets were questioned on their views on carbon labelling by Newcastle Business School.

The most eye-catching result was that 72 per cent of those surveyed wanted carbon labels on food.

While 83 per cent do not know their own personal carbon footprint, almost three quarters of respondents said clearer carbon labelling on food products would help them to think ‘green’.

Although 63 per cent thought that carbon labels were a useful indicator for comparing environmental standards, quality and taste (76 per cent) were still deemed more important when purchasing food than environmental issues like carbon (44 per cent) and food miles (42 per cent).

Just over two-thirds claimed their purchasing behaviour had changed significantly in the past ten years. In particular, spending habits had shifted towards purchasing more free range (46 per cent), more fair trade (42 per cent), more locally sourced food (32 per cent), and more organic and less processed food products (32 per cent).

Zaina Gadema, who led the research, said her initial findings suggested consumers were concerned about climate change and food purchasing simultaneously.

Ms Gadema said: “Overall the dominant theme arising from this research is that consumers would generally like carbon labels on their food products.

“However, because there is little understanding or knowledge surrounding such information, as well as little in terms of availability of products with carbon footprints, it is difficult for consumers to compare environmental standards via carbon labels even though the majority of respondents think labels would help to do so.

“Greater and clearer use of carbon labels would help even more shoppers associate the importance of climate change with food purchasing.”

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