Analysis of three sustainability labels in the Food&Beverage sector

In a global context increasingly characterized by the overcoming of numerous planetary boundaries, humanity has reached the tipping point for numerous areas of interest, just think of climate change (the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change IPCC has already warned that the food industry alone already contributes up to 37% of global greenhouse gases and that, without intervention, these are likely to increase by another 30% by 2050, due to the growing demand resulting from population growth), the impressive rates of extinction of numerous species or biogeochemical pollution of anthropogenic origin; furthermore, the senseless and indiscriminate use of non-renewable resources and the unsustainable use of renewable ones (i.e. without waiting for natural regeneration rates) are necessarily moving various sectors to change course, aware that the time factor will be fundamental to counteract the overshoots mentioned above. The food industry is a key player for sustainable development and for containing the overshooting of planetary limits, which is why various solutions have been created and are being developed to make it less impactful: one with great potential is certainly that of “ecoscores”, i.e. science-based sustainability scores applied by means of a label to the final product in order to allow consumers to make informed and sustainable choices. The ongoing research project (“work-in-progress”) will provide an overview of some of the most tested “ecoscores” (Eco-score® by ADEME which since December 2024 has been renamed Green-score®, Planet-score® by ITAB , Eco impact® by Foundation Earth ) highlighting their characteristics, peculiarities, gaps and differences (through a comparative analysis) and carrying out analyses on how they are perceived by both consumers and experts.