Food brands considering adding carbon footprint to packaging alongside fat and sugar content Customers are being encouraged to make greener choices, and so are leading food manufacturers

Leading food manufacturers are considering adding the carbon footprint of products such as Bisto gravy, Mr Kipling cakes, and KitKats alongside sugar and fat content in a bid to better respond to the climate crisis.

Nestlé and Premier Foods, which are behind some of the UK’s biggest brands, are exploring ways to help customers shop in a more sustainable, environmentally conscious way.

A Premier Foods spokesperson told i: “Last financial year Premier Foods reduced its CO2 emissions by 37 per cent and we have set ourselves a target of 55 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025.

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“We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and have an active sustainability programme capturing raw materials such as palm oil and soya, paper, plastics, water, food waste and energy efficiency. Carbon footprint labelling may be something we consider in the future.”

Carbon footprint

And Mark Schneider, Nestlé’s chief executive, said: “Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face as a society. It is also one of the greatest risks to the future of our business.”

Nestle has said it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, in a sign of the pressure on the industry, The Telegraph reported.

Producing foodstuffs has an enormous impact on the environment. Agriculture, factory production, energy for storage, and distribution are all key processes, but all significant causes of carbon emissions.

While customers are being encouraged to try to make greener choices, there is likely to be a financial incentive for companies to make changes in tandem. One won’t work without the other.

Investment

As well as the nutritional values that have long been listed of food items, carbon emissions could also appear on packs as pressure mounts from investors.

Earlier this year, 80 primary investors signed a letter to fast food giants including McDonalds, KFC, and Domino’s urging them to “enact meaningful policies and targets” to reduce the carbon footprint of their meat and dairy supply chains, The Sunday Times reported.

While carbon footprint labelling might be some way off, businesses are increasingly looking to introduce more plant-based food, reformulate the ingredients used in existing products, and update packaging to greener alternatives.

But it would appear consumers would also back the use of recognisable emissions information too: a recent YouGov poll of 9,037 adults found two in three people backed the idea.