Consumer Interaction with Sustainability Labelling on Food Products: A Narrative Literature Review

Sustainability labelling on food products can help consumers make informed purchasing decisions and support the urgent transition to sustainable food systems. This paper investigates the impact of sustainability labelling on consumer understanding, attitudes and behaviour to support a more nuanced, detailed and holistic understand-ing of the evidence. Using a narrative literature review methodology, the paper assesses studies covering environmental, social, and/or animal welfare aspects of sustainability labelling on food products. There appears to be growing consumer interest in sustainability labelling, particularly in Europe, but consumer understanding of sustainability information is of-ten limited, which could hinder behaviour change. While sustainability labelling can positively influence consumer attitudes and purchasing be-haviours, evidence from real consumer settings tends to show small effect sizes. Consumers are generally willing to pay more for sustainability labelled products and organic labelling often leads to the highest reported willingness to pay. The evidence is unclear about the role of socio-demographics in predicting attitudes or behaviour. The review em-phasises the importance of trust, suggesting a preference for labelling backed by governments or public authorities. Sustainability labelling that uses intuitively understandable cues increases impact, with visual aids such as traffic light colours showing promise...

COOK B.;  LEITE Joao;  RAYNER Mike;  STOFFEL Sandro;  VAN RIJN Elaine;  WOLLGAST Jan; 

2023-12-13

MDPI

JRC134356

2072-6643 (online),   

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15173837,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC134356,   

10.3390/nu15173837 (online),