A group of food manufacturers and retailers have signed up for a new project, Foundation Earth, which will put labels on the front of products to indicate their environmental impact.
The initiative went back to the late British food entrepreneur Denis Lynn, who founded the British meat company Finnebrogue Artisan. He died in a quad bike accident last month.
As part of a pilot this fall, the nonprofit Foundation Earth will put eco-scores for food and beverages on the front of the packaging. The labels assess the environmental impact of a product using a traffic light rating system that was developed by Oxford University with the support of the animal welfare organization WWF.
The system behind the labels deals with farming, processing, packaging and transportation. It evaluates a product’s environmental impact based on carbon (49% weighted), water use (17%), water pollution (17%) and loss of biodiversity (17%).
A Nestlé-funded nine-month research and development program will run parallel to the pilot, combining the Oxford method with a system developed by an EU-funded consortium from the Belgian University of Leuven and the Spanish research agency AZTI.
The consortium will be brought together under the auspices of the European Commission’s food innovation initiative EIT Food. The aim of the program is to prepare Foundation Earth for a Europe-wide roll-out in 2022.
„The Oxford and EIT systems are unique in the world because they both make it possible to compare two products of the same type via a full product life cycle analysis according to their individual merits, instead of simply using secondary data to assess the environmental impact of a product as a whole”, Jago Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer at Finnebrogue, told Just Food.
Under the system, generic chicken nuggets would get a B label and blueberries would get a C, but scores for individual products vary depending on the manufacturing process.
Finnebrogue, based in Northern Ireland, is one of the food manufacturers and retailers who will participate in the pilot roll out. Attendees also include private label company Greencore, meat-free company The Meatless Farm and UK retailer Marks and Spencer.
Two other UK grocery retailers, Sainsbury’s and The Co-op, and Spanish grocer Eroski also support the initiative. Together with M&S, Nestle and Tyson, they will be discussing how the labels could be rolled out across the industry in Foundation Earth’s industry advisory group. None of these companies are participating in the pilot start.
When asked why Nestlé is participating in the pilot, Johannes Weber, the company’s European Affairs Manager, said: “Nestlé is excited to be working with Foundation Earth on a research program to study these carbon footprint projects. The ultimate goal of this study is to test the labeling of our products. As the collaboration has only just begun, we cannot confirm today when the first Nestlé products will be launched. We will make a pilot as soon as possible. ”
He added: “This pan-European scientific project will help us further develop the concept of communicating the environmental impact of our food and beverage products. Foundation Earth will give us the opportunity to test carbon footprint methods, learn about the performance of different products and find out how consumers are reacting to them. We hope that this can help support the discussions in Europe about a universal system for environmental assessments. ”
The program is supported by the UK government. George Eustice, Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: „Foundation Earth’s ambition to develop eco-labeling for food has the potential to help address the pressing challenges of sustainability and climate change.”
Andy Zynga, CEO of EIT Food added: “The launch of Foundation Earth is a very significant moment for the European food industry. It is the result of years of work by our EIT Food Consortium and Oxford University. It will create a credible and clear environmental labeling system on the face of food across the continent. ”
Professor Chris Elliott, Chair of the Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee, said: “The development of a more transparent and sustainable global food supply system is of tremendous importance to the health of our planet and the health of all citizens. We need a system based on the core principles of integrity. ”
alinaf 
Dana