Nutri-Score and Eco-Score: Consumers' trade-offs when facing two sustainability labels

Abstract

To communicate sustainability or nutritional information about foods, labels are often used. Little is known whether these labels could result in biased perceptions when used simultaneously. Therefore, we conducted a 2 (Nutri-Score; no, yes) x 2 (Eco-Score; no, yes) experiment in which participants’ perceived healthiness and environmental friendliness were measured. Four different foods were used that had Nutri-Score and Eco-Scores high/high, high/low, low/high, and low/low ratings. Data was collected from an online survey of 1,061 consumers in Germany. A between-subjects design to assess the interaction effects between the Nutri-Score and the Eco-Score on four food products was implemented. The results show that the Nutri-Score and Eco-Score influence each other’s perceived healthiness and perceived environmental impact assessment of consumers. The labels may, therefore, potentially result in biased perceptions of the healthiness and environmental friendliness of certain foods.