Consumer NGO calls for ban on ‘greenwashing’ of food & drink products

Food and drinks producers are greenwashing their merchandise by classifying them as CO2 impartial and have to be banned, in line with one among Europe’s main shopper NGOs.

In a report printed on Thursday, the European Client Organisation (BEUC) says that small ‘greenwashing’ labels have gotten more and more frequent on the cabinets of supermarkets, as increasingly manufacturers are discreetly stating that the product on sale is climate-neutral and due to this fact good for the planet. 

“For us, that is completely greenwashing,” Emma Calvert, a senior meals coverage officer at BEUC, instructed Euronews.

“Having a 100% CO2 impartial on a product is scientifically inaccurate and deceptive to customers. There is no means for customers within the grocery store to confirm that that is utilizing carbon sequestration initiatives to justify this declare.”

For BEUC, these labels are a deceptive indication which have a advertising and marketing worth that corporations play on. It says that greater than half of European customers imagine that environmental points affect their meals selections.

Because of this, it’s calling for a ban on some of these labels.

The NGO additionally says that the justification utilized by meals corporations to assert merchandise are CO2 impartial, is just not legitimate. Calvert stated these companies are utilizing carbon offsetting.

“Corporations pays for a carbon credit score to steadiness out their very own carbon emissions. The issue with that is that, it is a form of a burn now, pay later strategy,” she defined. 

“So, they’re emitting carbon proper every now and then the pledges are for tree planting initiatives largely sooner or later.”

This compensation can due to this fact take years to essentially be efficient and isn’t assured. Fires or excessive climate occasions may additionally trigger these compensatory bushes to vanish.