Mapping the sustainability labels jungle in the food context : consumers' preference of label (type)

Title data

Brand, Benedikt Martin ; Dintner, Lara Katharina:
Mapping the sustainability labels jungle in the food context : consumers' preference of label (type).
2024
Event: Sustainable Food Systems Symposium 2024 , 17.-18.09.2024 , Göttingen.
(Conference item: Conference , Speech with paper )

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While multi-level front-of-package labels (such as the NutriScore) for indicating food items’ healthiness based on several dimensions are well established (Ikonen et al., 2020), the sustainability labelling landscape is very fragmented (Futtrup et al., 2021; Torma & Thøgersen, 2021) and yet, no multi-dimensional multi-level sustainability label (MDMLSL) prevails in the food context. Currently, most existing food labels are conceptualized binary (e.g., animal welfare or not; Weinrich & Spiller, 2016), however, focusing on multiple dimensions appears to be especially important considering the multi-facet nature of sustainability. By incorporating more than just one dimension, the actual sustainability can be captured holistically (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint) and thus, more realistically. Additionally, multi-level labels are of particular importance, since they different levels depict the different shades of to what extent a criterion is fulfilled more granularly (e.g., free-range livestock breeding, different levels of space in the barn). While some labels do not need to be conceptualized as multi-level (e.g., Vegetarian), most food items can not simply be sorted into “sustainable” and “not sustainable”. Furthermore, a MDMLSL could increase the comparability of food and food products by incorporating not one but several of the most important metrics, such as water use, land use and carbon emissions (Asioli et al., 2020). Moreover, studies indicate that consumers’ satisfaction for multi-level labels are higher than for binary labels in the food item context (Weinrich & Spiller, 2016). Hence, a MDMLSL would take into account all essential sustainability dimensions, their level of fulfillment, and an (easy to interpret) aggregated score.