Consumer Perspectives and Strategies for Sustainable Food Choices: Insights from ING's Consumer Survey and Practical Tracks for Reducing Carbon Footprint, Minimizing Food Waste, and Stimulating Sales of Sustainable Products
Aa
Share
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements? I trust the sustainability claims of food manufacturers on their products
Protein track
How to encourage the consumption of protein products with a lower carbon footprint
- Encourage shifts towards products with a lower carbon footprint within the meat and dairy category (poultry instead of beef) and ‘redefine’ the default option by applying or suggesting smaller serving sizes.
- Leverage menu or recipe suggestions offered to consumers. Swedish retailer ICA works with a climate score for recipes, while Unilever changed recipes for its meal starter kits to include more vegetables and less meat.
- Broaden and strengthen the plant-based offering. Some retailers, such as Lidl, have specific targets and many meat and dairy companies have ventured into plant-based alternatives.
Food waste track
How to help consumers reduce food waste at the household level
- Changes in communication on expiry dates, for example, dairy companies like Arla and Danone have moved from ‘best before’ to ‘often good after’ to prevent people from throwing away products that are still fit for consumption.
- Offer portion sizes that are suited for smaller households and provide advice on how to store or use any leftovers.
- Give menu suggestions that offer a broader range of ingredients (e.g. vegetables) which can inspire consumers to use any leftovers.
Sustainability label track
How to stimulate additional sales of more sustainable products
- Explain why these products have added value for individual consumers and give them a prominent position in their marketing efforts.
- Raise the bar for the default option. Examples include Dutch retailers and their suppliers who have moved collectively to a higher standard for poultry meat and German retailers which are moving towards higher animal welfare standards for meat and dairy products.
Emission reduction targets give companies a stronger incentive to encourage consumers to change diets
Many investors expect corporates to align with climate targets, and submitting formal CO2 reduction targets to bodies like the Science Based Targets initiative carries obligations. So food companies, and especially retailers, increasingly have an interest in encouraging a shift in consumer demand due to strategic incentives. One example is that several major European retailers aim to grow the share of plant-based protein products at the expense of animal-based products for environmental and health reasons. As a result, they have been building a larger range of plant-based products and are working towards price parity. While these are soft commitments, they do give an idea of the direction these retailers want to take and what they expect from their suppliers.
But the economic incentive is often missing
However, in many cases, the economic incentive is missing. Stocking more climate-friendly products that no one buys, convincing customers to buy less of your product and helping consumers to discard less food are not viable business strategies due to their negative impact on sales volumes. Here, markets fail to provide the most desirable outcome for society which warrants policy interventions that help to make that the products that land on our plates are more sustainable.
