Climate impact labels could help promote sustainable food choices: study

Gianna Melillo
·3 min read
23

Story at a glance

  • Red meat is a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

  • New research shows menu labels that warn of red meat’s high climate impact may encourage consumers to opt for more environmentally sustainable options.

  • However, some consumers may conflate a food’s sustainability with its overall healthfulness.

Labels placed on fast food items highlighting their high climate impact may sway consumers to make more sustainable choices, new study results show.

Food accounts for around one-third of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions, while animal-based foods like red meat and dairy products make up a large proportion of these emissions.

Researchers carried out a randomized clinical trial with more than 5,000 participants to determine whether calling attention to red meat’s climate impact could change consumer menu selections.

Individuals were shown a sample online fast food menu and asked to select an item for dinner.

A control group received a menu with a quick response code label on all items and no climate labels. Another group received a menu with green low-climate impact labels, positively framing options like fish, chicken, or vegetarian options. The third group received a menu with red high-climate labels on items containing red meat, negatively framing the options.

Results showed 23 percent more participants in the high climate label group ordered a sustainable, non-red meat option, and 10 percent more in the low-climate group ordered a sustainable option, compared with controls.

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“In the United States, meat consumption, red meat consumption in particular, consistently exceeds recommended levels based on national dietary guidelines,” researchers wrote in the study.

“Shifting current dietary patterns toward more sustainable diets with lower amounts of red meat consumed could reduce diet-related [greenhouse gas emissions] by up to 55 [percent].”

Excess red meat consumption can also be harmful to human health and has been linked with increased risks of diabetes and certain cancers. Fast food restaurants are a key source of red meat in many Americans’ diets, authors noted, adding more than one-third of U.S. individuals consume fast food on a given day.

“These results suggest that menu labeling, particularly labels warning that an item has high climate impact, can be an effective strategy for encouraging more sustainable food choices in a fast food setting,” said lead study author Julia Wolfson said in a statement. Wolfson is an associate professor in the department of international health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Participants were also asked to rate how healthy they perceived their order to be. No food items included in the study were considered healthy based on Nutrition Profile Index scores.

Regardless of the climate label, those who selected a non-beef option perceived their choice to be healthier than those who selected a red meat item, researchers found.

These results suggest climate labels may make a food item seem more healthy than it is.

“An undeserved health halo conferred to unhealthy menu items could encourage their overconsumption,” said Wolfson. “So we have to look for labeling strategies that create ‘win-wins’ for promoting both more sustainable and healthy choices.”

The randomized trial was carried out online between March and April 2022.

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