News

Dr Food predicts ‘eco scoring’ of foods will cross the pond

Some major grocers in Europe are including so-called “eco scores” on the front of food product packages.

International food expert, David Hughes, predicts consumers in the U.S. will come to demand more environmental information on their food as consumers are in Europe.

“On one level, it’s going to be front of pack and I see that coming like a train. But then, what I’ve been noticing more recently is a rush of apps. There’s an app for that. You want to know what your environmental impact is? You want to know your carbon scores? There is an app for that.”

Hughes says several of those apps allow consumers to set carbon budgets. And there’s an Irish app that is catching on.

“You take a picture with your phone of your receipt and then it gives you a run-down of the carbon impact of each of the products and then totals it up and tells you how far you are on budget.”

Hughes says European apps for nutrition will likely merge with eco-scoring apps and will have a profound effect. But he expects a lot of arguing on HOW to determine those scores. Hughes made his comments as a guest of the Center for Food Integrity.