A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has revealed that adding climate impact labels on food menus had a strong effect on diners’ choices. The research report found that as a result of these labels, diners were inclined to avoid selecting red meat options that were more carbon-intensive.
The US-based study included more than 5,000 participants and was published online on the JAMA Network Open. As a part of the research, the participant group was split into three groups. Each group was provided different sample burger menus that included either ‘high impact’ on beef items, “low impact” on vegetarian, fish and chicken items, or no climate labels, respectively. The findings revealed that the high-impact group experienced a bigger reduction of 23 per cent compared to the control group as opposed to a lower reduction of 10 per cent amongst the ‘low impact’ label group.
Furthermore, around 1,300 participants were recruited and provided sample food delivery app menus that contained three different burrito dishes- beef chicken and vegetarian, all priced the same. Each dish featured information about its environmental impact, calories as well as how spicy it was. As a result, those who were given the menus with eco-labels saw a drop of 16 per cent in beef orders as opposed to those who were given the regular menu. Eco-label menus saw about 14 per cent of people choosing the vegetarian option as opposed to 9 per cent of those given the regular menu.
“Somewhat surprisingly, participants were positive about the eco-label, with a huge 90 per cent of participants supporting the idea,” added lead author and Research Associate Katie De-loyde in a statement about the research. “Our results suggest future policy could include mandatory eco-labeling…on food products as a way to promote more sustainable diets.”
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