Sustainability claims in the food sector

Sustainability claims are a popular marketing and sales strategy for companies, especially in connection with food products, because they give consumers the impression that by buying certain products they are playing a part in helping to protect the environment. As part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission has set itself the goal of protecting consumers from incorrect sustainability claims and enabling them to make well-informed purchasing decisions through increased transparency. This should help to counteract the phenomenon known as "greenwashing" and strengthen consumer confidence in environmental claims and labels. 

To achieve this, the European Commission presented in March 2023 a proposal for a directive known as the "Green Claims Directive" (Directive on Environmental Claims). The proposed directive stipulates that explicit environmental claims, including environmental claims in text form and environmental labels, must meet certain requirements before they can be used in advertising, for example. This proposal for a directive on explicit environmental claims stipulates that 

• traders must carry out an assessment to substantiate explicit environmental claims;

• information must be provided (in physical form, as a web link, or as a QR code); and

• such explicit environmental claims must be substantiated by independent verifiers (certificate of conformity). 

If the explicit environmental claim does not comply with these requirements, the proposed directive provides for the imposition of fines and, for example, a temporary exclusion from public tenders for up to 12 months. Companies should pay particular attention to these requirements when designing food packaging.