Eco-Score: sustainability label for food products

Eco-Score is a label for food products to assess the environmental impact of food products. The system ranks products in a scale from A (low environmental impact) to E (very high environmental impact), and it is based on the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) approach of the different production steps of the food product: agriculture, processing, packaging, transportation, distribution and consumption. In particular for packaging, the score computes a penalty to take into account the circularity of packaging, in particular the use of recycles raw material and recyclability of the packaging, as well as overpacking.

The label is being developed mainly in France, and is supported by major European retailers such as Lidl, Colruyt and Carrefour. The development is timely, as the European Commission is planning to introduce a harmonised sustainable food label framework under the Farm to Fork strategy by 2024.