How to Inform

Consumers on
Nutrition and
Environmental
Impact
By Róisín Cannon & Clodagh
Lyons
 • Consumers need to be informed
• Labels are displayed on food products
Nutrition & • Are these of use if they are not
Environmental interpreted correctly? Or at all?
• Do consumers take nutritional value and
Impact environmental impact into account?
• Are they aware of the symbols for
carbon footprint etc.?
 Nutritional information
• A study in New Zealand reported that:
➢92% of participants “glanced” at the nutrient
content
➢84% looked at the nutrient content with
interest
➢68% declared to put the food back on the
shelf, if the nutrient content did not satisfy
them
(Scott and Worsley, 1997).
 Current findings
Many people report that they read food labels.
Fat and energy (calories) are read the most.
Per 100g is focused on more.
Used for comparison.
Most consumers look at the front of the packaging.
Less likely to look at the environmental impact of food.
(Higginson et al, 2002, Ben et al, 2015)
How to help
Some studies suggest displaying per serving before per 100g

Better nutrition and consumer education is needed

Displaying nutritional labelling on the front of the package

(Higginson et al,2002)
Current Findings
• 93% of consumers stated that they
participate in efforts to sustain the
environment (Hartman, 2007)
• In a survey, 2000 consumers participated in,
greater than 400 green labels that were used
on products failed to be recognised by any
consumer (Borin et al., 2011)
• Logos/Symbol's on products, usually green
• Consumers usually have a hard time
understanding what exactly these
logos/symbols mean (Thøgersen, 2000).
How to help
More education around the
importance of sustainability
and the environment.
Social Media and Social
Influencers (Abrahamse and
Steg, 2013)
Penalty – Fines, taxes etc
(Fullerton and Kinnaman,
1995)
Rewards system
Thank You !!

Any questions?
References
• Abrahamse, W. and Steg, L. (2013) 'Social influence approaches to encourage resource
conservation: A meta-analysis', Global environmental change, 23(6), pp. 1773-1785.
• Benn, Y., Webb, T.L., Chang, B.P. and Reidy, J. (2015). What information do consumers consider,
and how do they look for it, when shopping for groceries online?. Appetite, 89, pp.265-273.
• Borin, N., Cerf, D.C. and Krishnan, R. (2011) 'Consumer effects of environmental impact in
product labeling', Journal of Consumer Marketing.
• Fullerton, D. and Kinnaman, T.C. (1995) 'Garbage, recycling, and illicit burning or dumping',
Journal of environmental economics and management, 29(1), pp. 78-91.
• Hartman, G. (2007) 'Hartman report on sustainability: understanding the consumer perspective',
Hartman Group Bellevue, WA,
• Higginson, C.S., Kirk, T.R., Rayner, M.J. and Draper, S. (2002) 'How do consumers use nutrition
label information?', Nutrition & Food Science,
• Scott, V. and Worsley, A. (1997) 'Consumer views on nutrition labels in New Zealand', Australian
journal of nutrition and dietetics,
• Thøgersen, J. (2000) 'Psychological determinants of paying attention to eco-labels in purchase
decisions: Model development and multinational validation', Journal of consumer policy, 23(3),
pp. 285-313.