Speaker
Description
Interest in reducing the food sector's environmental impact is growing in the face of global warming and environmental pressures. This has led to a global push for evolving front-of-pack sustainability labels. The European Union (EU) also aims to develop a uniform labeling system as part of its 'farm to fork' strategy to encourage sustainable food choices. A key question is whether a label should focus solely on greenhouse gases or also include other environmental factors. To explore the consumer perspective on this issue, we conducted an online survey experiment in June 2022 with 511 participants in Germany as the EU’s largest economy.
Results indicated that many participants struggle to differentiate between climate and eco labels. However, especially when given explanations, participants tended to prefer the eco label. A cluster analysis supported these findings, as it identified four consumer groups with different attitudes toward the climate and eco labels: All groups had a slight preference for the eco label, which increased after the information treatment.
