There is a new food label you need to know about
This new labeling system can help consumers make environmentally friendly choices.
Checking nutrition tags on food packaging is one of the main ways to judge our food choices. We can quickly evaluate how healthy or unhealthy we are on the point of eating consists of learning his tales of calories, sugar, sodium, fiber and saturated fats. But if we are ready to do this due diligence for our own well-being, why can not we do it for the well-being of the planet? Provides, now we can.
With the growing interest of the general public in the fight against global warming, food companies are moving from efforts to label their products withCarbon footprint labels. This means that you can evaluate how much theThe food you eat contributed to the global warming as its production and transportation.
Just salad, a salad chain based on a new fast occasion, ispioneering these efforts in the fast food industry. A long-standing innovator in sustainable development, the company has announced thatThe labels of the carbon footprint will be added to all their menu items in September. The labels show the total estimated greenhouse gas emissions for each menu item based on its ingredients, calculated using carbon emission data for hundreds of food.
Similarly, the plants'-based milk mark added carbon labels to their products in 2018. Currently, the information is available on their website and on the packaging of some of their products in Europe, but the company is considering to bring carbon labels to their product packaging in the United States too. "As people become increasingly aware of the impact on the environment of what they buy, we are absolutely expecting carbon labels to become a common place and to influence purchase decisions" , a spokesman told OatlyStrong.
Why should I worry about the carbon footprint of my food?
Carbon emissions are the leading cause of global warming and currently, food production accounts for about 26% of world carbon emissions. As consumers, each of us can have a significant impact on the devastating effects of the food industry on climate change by choosing products with a smaller carbon footprint. The new carbon labeling system can help us analyze the worst offenders among food products.
For example, animal products have a higher carbon footprint than plant-based foods.Farming production is one of the main contributors to carbon emissionsand rising cows for meat is particularly harmful. According to data published by Hoporn, a plant-based meat company launches carbon labeling in Great Britain, the carbon footprint of one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of chopped beef is greater than 20 times higher. to that of the same amount of their substitute base of meat and about 30 times greater than a kilogram of bananas. Learn more about theReasons why you should stop eating meat right now.
"The food is the strongest leverage as we have as an individual climate change," said Sandra Noonan, Salad's Sustainability Manager, "said Forbes. "If, as a society, we begin to pay attention to our food carbon footprints, as far as we pay particular attention to our daily caloric consumption, we could change the course of global history."
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