Australian Study Finds 39% of Packaged Foods Carry Sustainability Claims, Most Self-Declared

More than 27,000 packaged foods sold at Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Harris Farm supermarkets in Sydney were assessed by researchers from the George Institute for Global Health. Nearly four in 10 products carried some sort of sustainability claim, according to the study published in Public Health Nutrition.

Associate Prof Alexandra Jones, the institute’s program lead for food governance, said the majority of claims were self-declared by the manufacturer, without independent verification.

The researchers identified 69 different environmental claims. “Natural” and “vegan” appeared most often. Some claims like “sustainable” or “natural” were so broad as to be almost meaningless, Jones said.

“There’s no legal meaning of ‘natural’,” she added. ” In a second study published in Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, George Institute researchers assessed whether products displaying climate-related claims actually had lower emissions. Products making climate-related claims had lower carbon footprints in general terms.

In meat and confectionery categories, however, products boasting environmental benefits had higher emissions than their unlabelled counterparts. Mariel Keaney, lead author of the second study, said this raised serious concerns for consumer trust. “When ‘carbon friendly’ labels appear on some of the highest-emitting products in a category, that label isn’t just unhelpful, it’s also potentially misleading,” Keaney stated.

About half of Australians considered sustainability when shopping, according to the Consumer Policy Research Centre. Chandni Gupta, deputy chief executive of the Consumer Policy Research Centre, said consumers often relied on labels or on-pack messaging when making decisions. Labels that were clear, specific and backed by evidence or independent verification could be helpful, Gupta added.

Prof Natalina Zlatevska, who researches health and sustainability marketing policy at the University of Technology Sydney, said consumers had an interest in sustainability and a desire to understand the impact that their food and grocery items had on the environment.

So many different claims and the lack of clear definitions created a lot of confusion, Zlatevska said. “What’s lacking is something that’s universal,” she stated.

Other countries were moving towards standardised ratings, like the Eco-Score system in France, which gave products a traffic light-style rating reflecting their environmental impact. “It needs to be informative enough for a consumer to make a really fast decision in the supermarket,” Zlatevska said. Jones said the findings highlighted the need for regulatory action.

If environmental claims were robust and regulated they could act as a powerful lever to improve the sustainability of foods. In the meantime, consumers wanting to reduce their impact should focus on reducing their meat intake, and eating more fruits, vegetables and legumes.