Food Labels Might Curtail Climate Impact of U.S. Fast Food Restaurants

New research inves­ti­gated how American con­sumers react to cli­mate-related food labels in fast food restau­rants. The authors found that such labels affect con­sumer choices, which tend to become more sus­tain­able.

In a paper released by JAMA Network Open, researchers from sev­eral aca­d­e­mic insti­tu­tions tracked and com­pared the behav­ior of three dif­fer­ent groups of con­sumers when offered var­i­ous food orders.

The first group was exposed to labels rat­ing the high cli­mate impact of the food options (neg­a­tive labels). The sec­ond group had to choose foods with labels indi­cat­ing lower envi­ron­men­tal impact (pos­i­tive labels). The third con­trol group was not exposed to any spe­cific label­ing.

The ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal trial involved 5049 U.S. adults. The results showed that par­tic­i­pants in the neg­a­tive label group chose a sus­tain­able option, such as avoid­ing red meat, 23 per­cent more often than the con­trol group. In the pos­i­tive label group, par­tic­i­pants chose a sus­tain­able option only 10 per­cent more often than the con­trol group.

Interestingly, par­tic­i­pants who ordered the more sus­tain­able option clas­si­fied their food as health­ier than the unsus­tain­able option.

The research found that cli­mate impact labels might sig­nif­i­cantly reduce red meat selec­tions on a fast food menu. The researchers’ find­ings show how cli­mate-impact menu labels might pro­mote more sus­tain­able food choices in American fast-food restau­rants.

Such find­ings come on the heels of a global debate about food sus­tain­abil­ity and labels. Climate change’s incom­pa­ra­ble impact on global food pro­duc­tion and secu­rity has trig­gered this debate in recent years.

In Europe, researchers have backed pro­pos­als to add cli­mate-related labels to food in restau­rants and on retail­ers’ shelves.

A few months ago, the German sci­en­tific advi­sory board on agri­cul­tural pol­icy, food and con­sumer health pro­tec­tion (WBAE) requested that food labels show con­sumers the green­house gas emis­sions of cer­tain foods.

The Planet-Score label has been pre­sented in France to reveal the envi­ron­men­tal impact of food to con­sumers. The label, under eval­u­a­tion by the French gov­ern­ment, is backed by sev­eral of the country’s research insti­tu­tions.

Olive oil has also been fea­tured in many coun­tries’ debates about food sus­tain­abil­ity. It is among the health­i­est cook­ing fats and is often con­sid­ered one of the most sus­tain­able foods.

Olive oil’s rep­u­ta­tion for sus­tain­abil­ity comes from olive orchards’ car­bon diox­ide-seques­ter­ing qual­i­ties. New clean har­vest­ing meth­ods and tech­nolo­gies that reuse most or all olive byprod­ucts fur­ther boost the sus­tain­abil­ity of the food prod­uct.

• The new research
• The WBAE rec­om­men­da­tions
• Sustainable EVOO Production Reuses All Byproducts