“CO-2-compensated strawberry yoghurt”, “climate-neutral milk” or “climate-positive baby food”: Green advertising claims on food have considerable greenwashing potential. This is the result of a study by the research agency “Zühlsdorf + Partner” and the University of Göttingen on behalf of the vzbv’s food clarity project. Accordingly, advertising statements related to sustainability make products appear in a much more positive light to consumers. This is problematic because many of these advertising claims are completely unregulated and untested. The vzbv is calling for a seal check and a ban on untested green advertising claims.
Greenwashing: Deceptive sustainability advertising harms the environment and deceives consumers
“The wild growth of sustainable advertising promises is growing ever more strangely. Be it steak, milk or baby food: companies now advertise almost every product as sustainable. It is unclear what such claims and seals are really worth. The door is wide open for manipulation and greenwashing and should therefore be urgently regulated by politicians. Greenwashing makes it more difficult for consumers to make climate- and environmentally friendly food choices and, last but not least, harms the environment and climate. Ultimately, this undermines the credibility of environmentally committed companies. A check for climate claims is overdue.”
vzbv board member Ramona Pop
According to the study, sustainability statements can sometimes significantly manipulate consumers and lead to misjudgments. For example, climate-related advertising claims lead to a significantly more positive product perception - even if the actual climate-friendliness of the product is completely unclear.
In the study, for example, consumers were asked to rate the climate friendliness of a beef steak, a pork schnitzel and a vegan burger patty. Without an advertising claim, at least 70 percent of those surveyed were able to correctly identify the vegan patty as the most climate-friendly product. If the products were labeled with climate-related advertising claims, only 58 percent recognized the most climate-friendly product. 28 percent were of the opinion that the beef steak was more climate-friendly.
Claims about transport distances (“regional”) or packaging advantages (“plastic-free”) also make products appear more environmentally friendly. Many consumers are not aware that such partial aspects are often of little relevance to the overall ecological balance of the food: 72 percent always incorrectly consider regional products to be more climate-friendly.
Further results at a glance
- When the packaging claim is “plastic-free” on a chocolate bar, 56 percent of those surveyed come to a positive environmental assessment of the entire product - 30 percentage points more than the variant without a claim, even though the content is the same.
- Only ten percent of those surveyed can correctly classify the connection between “climate neutrality” and compensation. The majority incorrectly assumes that “climate neutral” means “less greenhouse gas emissions”. In fact, greenhouse gases are always produced during production.
Manipulative advertising claims: Consumers unsure about environmental claims
The results show that consumers are often unsure what the claims actually mean. This is also confirmed by reports to thesmittelklarheit.de portal, which prompted the project to examine the effect of the claims in more detail. For the study, 2,109 consumers were surveyed about 16 common environmental claims in food marketing.
In a current position paper, the vzbv calls on the EU Commission to better regulate environmental advertising claims. This includes: Environmental advertising claims should only be permitted if they can be verified and the awarding of sustainability labels should be controlled by the state. Advertising that claims products are “climate neutral” should be banned, as should environmental claims that only refer to individual aspects (e.g. packaging) of a product. Sustainability labels should only be permitted if they are independently certified by a third party.
Source:
Federal Association of Consumer Organizations
Also read our fact checks:
President Zelenskyj naked in video?
Yes, 13 years ago! Tank in the mud does not come from Ukraine
Video: School class not in Germany or Austria
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )