Sustainable Food Choices Cut Grocery Emissions by 26%

A recent study reveals that switching to more environmentally friendly food and drink options can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from groceries by 26%. Larger dietary changes could cut emissions by up to 71%. Researchers call for on-pack labeling to help consumers make informed, sustainable choices.

Switching food and drinks with more environment-friendly alternatives could cut down greenhouse gas emissions from groceries by 26 per cent, a new research analysing purchases of 7,000 Australian households has found.

Roughly, the same amount of emissions would be cut if over 19 lakh cars were taken off the road in the country, according to researchers.

Making bigger changes, such as swapping a frozen meat lasagne for the vegetarian option, could reduce emissions by as much as 71 per cent, they said.

To make this happen, the authors called for on-pack labelling of greenhouse gas emissions for every packaged food product so that consumers can make informed choices.

''While consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the food system and willing to make more sustainable food choices, they lack reliable information to identify the more environmentally friendly options,'' said epidemiologist Allison Gaines, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Food.

For their analysis, the researchers used the FoodSwitch database, maintained by The George Institute, UK, for information on ingredients, weights and production life cycles.

More than 22,000 grocery products were classified into major, minor and sub-categories of foods to estimate emissions saved by switching both within and between groups.

For example, while 'bread and bakery' would be a major food, 'bread' would be a minor food and 'white bread' would be a sub-category, the researchers explained.

''Switching higher-emission products for 'very similar' lower-emission products could reduce total emissions by 26 per cent. Switches to 'less similar' lower-emission products could lead to a 71 per cent reduction,'' the authors wrote.

''Dietary habits need to change significantly if we are to meet global emissions targets, particularly in high-income countries like Australia, the UK, and US.

''The results of our study show the potential to significantly reduce our environmental impact by switching like-for-like products,'' said Gaines.

The analysis also showed that while meat products made up nearly half of all greenhouse gas emissions, they made up only 11 per cent of all grocery purchases.

Further, the researchers found that even though fruit, vegetables, nuts and legumes constituted about a quarter of all purchases, they were responsible for only five per cent of emissions.

The authors estimated that there were more than 3.1 crore tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions connected to products consumed at home in Australia in 2019.

Further, the average emissions per person for that year for was 1.41 tonnes, while the average emissions per household for that year was 3.23 tonnes, they estimated.

They also found that the three most emissions-intensive food categories per kg of product were meat-based eatables causing nearly seven kg of emissions, confectionery leading to 5.6 kg of emissions and dairy causing over four kg of emissions.

The study is the most detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of a country's food purchasing behaviour, making use of comprehensive data on greenhouse gas emissions and sales of supermarket products, typical of the diet in many western countries, according to the authors.