New study reveals widespread misconceptions about food sustainability, reinforcing the need for environmental impact labelling to guide more informed consumer choices.
New research from the University of Nottingham has revealed widespread consumer misconceptions about the environmental impact of everyday foods, strengthening the case for clear and consistent environmental impact labelling on products.
Environmental impact labels that give foods a single overall grade (such as A–E) could help make comparisons between products easier for consumers.”
The study, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, asked 168 UK participants to sort a diverse range of food products into environmental impact categories that they created and named themselves. Conducted by scientists from the University’s School of Psychology, the research is the first to test perceptions across a wide selection of items typically found in a weekly shop.
Researchers found significant misconceptions about the relative impact of everyday foods. Researchers then showed participants scientifically derived product-level impact estimates and asked them whether the results were higher or lower than they had expected. These food-system impacts come from life cycle assessments, which evaluate the full cradle-to-grave footprint of a product by measuring inputs such as fertiliser, water and energy, alongside outputs like emissions and waste.
Lead author Daniel Fletcher, Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Psychology, said: “We designed an online task to engage people with the topic and provide an interactive and visual way of investigating their understanding of the environmental impact of food. We found participants would be willing to change their purchasing behaviour based on this task, reporting intentions to decrease (or increase) their future consumption of products for which they were surprised by how high (or low) the scientifically estimated environmental impact was.”
He added that the findings highlight a key challenge in how consumers assess complex sustainability information: “Our findings also suggest people may struggle to compare the environmental impact of animal-based products and highly processed foods because they see their effects as too different to weigh against each other. Environmental impact labels that give foods a single overall grade (such as A–E) could help make these comparisons easier for consumers.”
Previous studies have focused on limited food categories, but the Nottingham team’s work – funded by UKRI’s Smart Data Research UK – captured a wider range of products to better reflect real-world shopping decisions. The researchers argue that misunderstanding environmental impacts could act as a barrier to dietary shifts that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.
Professor Alexa Spence, School of Psychology, said: “The environmental impact data on food products is opening up new avenues for this research and this is the first study to look at this against a wide range of everyday products and examine what people’s perceptions of these are. What was clear from the study is that there are a lot of misconceptions around this which really supports the need for environmental impact labelling which would help people to be more informed to make sustainable food choices.”
The findings point to a significant opening for the food sector, with researchers concluding that simplified and standardised ecolabelling could provide the clarity consumers need and accelerate more sustainable purchasing across the market.
Related topics
Clean Label, Environment, Health & Nutrition, Ingredients, Labelling, Packaging & Labelling, Regenerative Agriculture, retail, Supermarket, Sustainability, The consumer, Traceability, World Food
