Food labels to show 'carbon footprint' under Government plans

Hilary Benn, UK's Environment Secretary, said in future people will have to eat less “carbon intensive” foods like red meat or excessively packaged products to make sure Britain meets targets to cut greenhouse gases.

To help consumers do this, new “green” food labels will show how much carbon was produced in the manufacture and transportation of food.

Tesco, PepsiCo and other leading brands are already displaying a “carbon reduction label” on certain products showing the amount of carbon dioxide produced in grams in growing the food, packaging and transportation.

As part of a new food strategy for the next 20 years, the Government calls on other brands to consider measuring the carbon footprint of goods as well as being more honest about where meat was bred and the standards of welfare.

But environmental groups said the Government needed to bring in legislation rather than a voluntary labelling scheme to really transform food and farming.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Mr Benn said choosing low carbon goods will help people fight climate change.   United Kingdom Food Strategy report