Public Perception of Carbon Footprint(s) as additional Food Label

Michaela Schlich*, Nutritional and Consumer Science, Institute for Management, University Koblenz Landau, Campus Koblenz
Daniela Thomae, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Elmar H. Schlich, University Giessen

At present different efforts are made for introducing Carbon Footprint (CF) as additional label on food packages in Europe. This is a contribution to the increasing public attention which is paid to all questions related to climatic change.

Food packages serve for many objectives. First of all, the package protects food from the environment in order to keep it for degustation, health and wellness. At the same time the packaging protects the environment from foods so as to prevent pollution. Secondly the package serves as carrier of product information. This task is strictly regulated by legal requirements regarding information about producer, trademark, quantity, price, composition, ingredients, nutritional recommendations, and even recipes for the preparation at home 1. Sometimes information about farm management (e.g. kind of organic farming) could be presented as well 2.

The poster exemplary compares the recent state of CF-label development in the UK 3, France 4, Sweden 5, and Germany 6. The public perception of such additional food label in Germany has recently been investigated by interviewing experts (n = 95) and private consumers (n = 150). The results are more or less bleak:

• Most consumer don't care about greenhouse gas emissions or are simply not able to understand “Carbon Footprint”.

• The system borders and boundary conditions of label calculation differ across EU. This leads to increasing confusion and distrust, and could turn out to be a trade obstruction.

• The part of consumer behavior in terms of shopping by car, of storing and cooking food at home and of loss by mistreatment is substantial but not included into CF-label.

• Aspects like seasonality, regional farming, business size and ecologies of scale 7,8 are neglected.

Obviously it is necessary to improve the scientific database of entire supply chains for food in order to calculate reliable CF-labels. In the long run we must endeavor to achieve a situation where consumer can simply rely without further ado on a carbon footprint label that should at least be compatible within EU.

References

1. Lebensmittelkennzeichnungsverordnung. Verordnung über die Kennzeichnung von Lebensmitteln. Bundesministerium der Justiz, Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2007).
2. Verordnung (EG) Nr. 967/2008 des Rates vom 29. September 2008 zur Änderung der Verordnung (EG) Nr. 834/2007 über die ökologische/biologische Produktion und die Kennzeichnung von ökologischen/biologischen Erzeugnissen. BMELV (2008).
3. Publicly Available Specification: Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. London, BSI: October 2008.
4. Fourdrin E. Environmental communication on consumer goods in France. Vortrag beim Treffen des „federal public service belgium“: „Toward consumer-oriented environmental information on consumer goods”. 22. January 2009
5. Krav, Svenskt sigill u.a.: Project Description for the Project Standards for Climate Marking of Foods Version No 2.0, Authorized by SG 15 February 2008.
6. Projekt Carbon Footprint Ergebnisbericht: Product Carbon Footprinting - Ein geeigneter Weg zu klimaverträglichen Produkten und deren Konsum? Erfahrungen, Erkenntnisse und Empfehlungen aus dem Product Carbon Footprint Pilotprojekt Deutschland.
7. Schlich E, Fleissner U: The Ecology of Scale: Assessment of Regional Energy Turnover and Comparison with Global Food. Special Issue of Int J LCA (2004).
8. Schlich E, Schlich M: The Ecology of Scale: Further Examples and Comments. InLCA (2004).
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