Quorn is to become the first major brand to introduce carbon labelling on its products.
The new labels, aimed at helping consumers understand the environmental impact of their shopping, will start appearing on some products from June and on the entire Quorn range by next year.
From Thursday the "farm to shop" carbon footprint data, certified by the Carbon Trust, will be available online for Quorn's 30 best-selling products.
Quorn claims to be the first meat-free food manufacturer to achieve third-party certification of its carbon footprint figures, through the Carbon Trust, which is being integrated into its own food labelling.
It says that in 2018 its products enabled savings of 200,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent compared with meat. The greenhouse gas impact of mycoprotein, the fungi-based protein used in Quorn products, is 90% lower than beef.
Analysis of the damage farming does to the planet revealed that avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way in which consumers can reduce their environmental impact, with animal agriculture a significant and fast-growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, despite Quorn's success there is criticism that they are heavily processed and far from natural plant-based foods.
Peter Harrison, chief commercial officer of Quorn Foods, said: "This is about giving people the information needed to make informed decisions about the food they eat and the effect it has on our planet’s climate – in the same way that nutrition information is clearly labelled to help inform decisions on health".
Carbon Trust research in 2019 found that two-thirds of consumers support the idea of a recognisable carbon label to demonstrate that products have been made with a commitment to measuring and reducing their carbon footprint.
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