The Impact of Sustainability Labelling on Consumers' Evaluation and Choice of Food Products: A Systematic Literature Review

The last five years of research on sustainability labelling, reported in 175 journal articles, documents its effectiveness in increasing consumer choices of more sustainable food products. Some sustainability labels come out as stronger than others and their impact varies across products, countries, and individual consumers, depending on label characteristics, knowledge, familiarity, and perceived issue importance. When combining multiple labels, each of them usually has a positive effect on choices, but their marginal effects are lower than if the label is used alone. Many consumers lack sufficient knowledge about certification requirements and benefits of labelled products, which leads to confusion and vulnerability to ‘greenwashing’ attempts. Also, high societal focus on one sustainability topic can divert limited attention away from other important topics. Hence, it is important for businesses to exercise restraint regarding uncertified claims and for policy to connect and balance sustainability issues and facilitate consumers' mental connections between certified sustainability labels.