Abstract
Abstract Background: Food production and consumption contributes to one third of households’ environmental impact. The environmental impact of different food categories varies and in general environmental footprint of meat is high than fish and vegetable options. Environmental food labels have been suggested as a means to sway consumption patterns. The purpose of this study is to test if different simple eco-labels in combination with posters can influence consumers to select environmentally friendly food options. Method: Three different labeling systems were tested on warm dishes in a University cafeteria in Oslo, Norway. The first system was traffic-light labels with three symbols (red, yellow and green), the second system was a single-green label that only labelled the environmentally friendliest dishes, and the third system was a single-red label that only labelled the least environmentally friendly option. Posters were placed in the cafeteria, explaining the labeling systems and the climate impact of different food categories. Outcome measures was sales share of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes. The intervention period was separated in two; the first 20 days (period 1) and 22 last days (period 2) to evaluate if the effects of the labels was different when first introduced and after some months. Results: The traffic-light labels significantly reduced sales of meat dishes with 9% in the period 1 (p < 0.1) but not in period 2. Sales share of fish or vegetarian dishes were not impacted. Single-green and single-red labeling had no effect on sales share of meat, fish or vegetarian dishes. Posters were present during all interventions. Conclusion: Findings suggests that traffic-light labels in combination with posters can improve the eco-friendliness of customers food choices in a cafeteria setting, at least short-term. Future studies should investigate the long-term effects of simple eco-labels. Additionally, one should study the combined effect of symbols with other changes in the choice architecture. Key words: Food choices, behavioral economics interventions, nudging, eco-labels, simple-labels, environmental impact
Highlights
Food production and consumption is responsible for one third of European households’ total environmental impact and is an important sector from an environmental perspective (Guinée et al, 2006b; European Environment Agency, 2015)
The labels used a simple color-coded scheme in combination with words inside the labels to visualize the environmental impact of the dish, which has been found to improve the efficacy of eco-labels (Tang et al, 2004)
This study suggests that traffic-light labeling according to the environmental impact of different dishes in combination with posters might have an effect, but that the effects may fade over time
Summary
Food production and consumption is responsible for one third of European households’ total environmental impact and is an important sector from an environmental perspective (Guinée et al, 2006b; European Environment Agency, 2015). A growing body of research suggests that a global shift toward a more plantbased diet is necessary in order to overcome the worst climate change scenario (Goodland, 1997; Goodland and Anhang, 2009; Krystallis et al, 2009; Stehfest et al, 2009; Audsley et al, 2010; Deckers, 2010a,b; Freibauer et al, 2011; Gerber et al, 2013; Green et al, 2015; Fischer and Garnett, 2016) This can either be achieved by substituting meat-based diets with plant-based diets (Berners-Lee et al, 2012; Sabate and Soret, 2014; Scarborough et al, 2014) or by substituting high GHG intensive meat products (e.g., beef and lamb) with lower GHG intensive products (e.g., chicken and fish) (McMichael et al, 2007; Committee, 2008; Green et al, 2015). The purpose of this study is to test if different simple eco-labels in combination with posters can influence consumers to select environmentally friendly food options
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