The UK’s leading plant-based brand, Meatless Farm, has today announced the introduction of eco-labelling to its top selling products. Delivered and certified by Foundation Earth, the traffic-light labelling system will help to clearly communicate the eco impact of its products to consumers keen to reduce their environmental footprint.
The introduction of eco-labelling from Meatless Farm forms part of the brand’s ongoing mission to drive greater awareness about how people’s food choices impact the environment – a quarter of greenhouse gases are the direct result of the food system. By educating consumers about the importance of where their food comes from, Meatless Farm hopes to encourage shoppers to make more considered food choices. For example, swapping one more red meat meal to plant-based each week would cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 8.4% – the equivalent of taking 16 million cars off the road.
Despite two thirds of consumers saying they support eco-labelling on products and almost half of shoppers (49%)[4] saying they consider sustainability when purchasing their weekly groceries, eco-labelling remains optional and is only implemented by a handful of brands. Meatless Farm hopes the introduction of eco-labelling will not only encourage more companies to get on board but force the UK Government to finally commit to a unified system for calculating the environmental impact of food production, a mission already laid out by Henry Dimbleby in the 2021 National Food Strategy and called for by the Food Standards Agency’s Chief Scientific Adviser.
A harmonised approach to eco-labelling could not only lead to greater innovation amongst food and drink brands as companies look for more eco-friendly ways of producing, manufacturing, transporting, and packaging food. It could also result in significant changes to consumer behaviour, causing purchase patterns to shift from products with poor sustainable credentials towards those with lower carbon footprints. Changes which could play an important role in helping the UK meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement back in 2016.
Evaluating each products carbon emissions, water usage, water pollution and impact on biodiversity, the Foundation Earth eco-label and score will appear on the front of Meatless Farm’s plant-based Mince, Meatless Farm plant-based Chicken Breasts, Meatless Farm’s Chipolatas, Meatless Farm plant-based Quarter Pound Burgers and Meatless Farm plant-based Steaks from January 2023.
Morten Toft-Bech, CEO and Founder of Meatless Farm commented: “At Meatless Farm we are constantly looking for new ways to encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices to help improve the health of the planet. As we look to the future, the introduction of eco-labelling is one way we plan to do this. Informing shoppers about the impact their choices have on the environment will encourage them to think more about their carbon footprint and choose products with lower carbon emissions.”
Cliona Howie, CEO of Foundation Earth also said: “We are excited to welcome Meatless Farm as one of our pioneer brands using ecolabelling as a tool for eco impact transparency. It’s important that people have robust and credible information to help inform their purchases as they look to make more sustainable shopping choices, and eco-labelling is a clear and obvious way to do this.”
