Meatless Farm adds Eco Impact Labelling
Meatless Farm has introduced eco impact labelling to its top selling products to help customers make more environmental choices.
Delivered and certified by Foundation Earth, the traffic-light labelling appears on the front of pack of our Plant-Based Mince, Burgers, Chipolata Sausages, Chicken Breasts and Steaks from January 2023.
The ratings take into account each product’s carbon emissions, water usage, water pollution and impact on biodiversity. Our Plant-Based Mince, Burgers, Chipolata Sausages and Chicken Breasts all received an ‘A’ Eco Impact rating.
Making better food choices through Eco Impact Labelling
The introduction of eco-labelling forms part of Meatless Farm’s ongoing mission to drive greater awareness about how people’s food choices impact the environment. A quarter of greenhouse gases are the direct result of the food system.
We believe that educating consumers about the importance of where their food comes from is key. By doing this Meatless Farm hopes to encourage shoppers to make more considered food choices.
For example, swapping one more red meat meal to plant-based each week would cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 8.4%. This is the equivalent of taking 16 million cars off the road. Check out our Meatless Consumption Calculator to find out what difference you can make by swapping meat for Meatless.
Despite two-thirds of consumers saying they support eco-labelling on products and almost half of shoppers (49%) saying they consider sustainability when purchasing their weekly groceries, eco-labelling remains optional and is only implemented by a handful of brands.
Meatless Farm hopes the introduction of eco-labelling will not only encourage more companies to get on board but force the UK Government to finally commit to a unified system for calculating the environmental impact of food production. This is a mission already laid out by Henry Dimbleby in the 2021 National Food Strategy and called for by the Food Standards Agency’s Chief Scientific Adviser.
Eco-friendly food & drink innovation
A harmonised approach to eco-labelling could not only lead to greater innovation amongst food and drink brands as companies look for more eco-friendly ways of producing, manufacturing, transporting, and packaging food. It could also result in significant changes to consumer behaviour. This in turn will causing purchase patterns to shift from products with poor sustainable credentials towards those with lower carbon footprints. Changes which could play an important role in helping the UK meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement back in 2016.
Morten Toft-Bech, CEO and Founder of Meatless Farm commented: “At Meatless Farm we are constantly looking for new ways to encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices to help improve the health of the planet.
“As we look to the future, the introduction of eco-labelling is one way we plan to do this. Informing shoppers about the impact their choices have on the environment will encourage them to think more about their carbon footprint and choose products with lower carbon emissions.”
Cliona Howie, CEO of Foundation Earth also said: “We are excited to welcome Meatless Farm as one of our pioneer brands using eco labelling as a tool for eco impact transparency.
“It’s important that people have robust and credible information to help inform their purchases as they look to make more sustainable shopping choices, and eco-labelling is a clear and obvious way to do this.”
References:
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector
[2] Original study by Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. 2018 Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 992, 987–992 (2018) and ONS U.K. household data 2017. Further research carried out by Joseph Poore on behalf of Meatless Farm (2021)
