“Consumers are willing to make more sustainable food choices, but lack reliable information to identify the more environmentally-friendly options,” said [The George Institute for Global Health and Imperial College London researcher Allison] Gaines. She and her co-authors are calling for on-pack carbon labels on all packaged food products to help consumers make informed choices.

“The results of our study show the potential to significantly reduce our environmental impact by switching like-for-like products,” she added.

The study proves that incorporating sustainability targets in national food policies could directly help reach global climate goals, without burdening consumers, according to Paraskevi Seferidi, a research fellow at the School of Public Health. “This is why we are urgently calling for robust legislation that targets high-emission food products,” she said.

Based on the research, the George Institute has developed a free app called ecoSwitch, which is currently available in Australia. “Shoppers can use their device to scan a product barcode and check its Planetary Health Rating, a measure of its emissions shown as a score between half a star (high emissions) to five stars (low emissions),” explained Neal.

He added: “EcoSwitch is a much-needed first step, but our vision is for mandatory display of a single, standardised sustainability rating system, on all supermarket products.”

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