EXCLUSIVE: Supermarket food's green revolution: Leading brands including M&S and Costa to display pioneering traffic-light style labels backed by the government to show customers the environmental impact of making their products

Foundation Earth will issue front-of-pack 'eco-scores' on some products in UK
The score will easily show consumers how environmentally friendly a product is
Some UK companies are taking part in a pilot programme starting in September
A nine-month research and development project funded by Nestle will also run
The programme will prepare the Foundation for a Europe-wide roll out in 2022

Published: 01:41 BST, 27 June 2021 | Updated: 01:41 BST, 27 June 2021

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Leading UK brands including Marks & Spencer's and Costa will display new traffic-light style labels to show customers the environmental impact of their products, in a new initiative backed by the government.

Global food giants and a group of top UK scientists are behind the new non-profit organisation Foundation Earth that will issue the front-of-pack 'eco-scores' on some food products from this September.

M&S and Costa will be joined by a group of the UK's leading food brands in a pilot launch launch the eco-scores, while Nestle - the world's largest food business - is funding a nine-month research and development programme.

The programme will prepare the Foundation for a Europe-wide roll out in 2022.

According to the Foundation, the systems are world-leading and unique, in that they allow two products of the same type to be compared on their individual environmental merits

Global food giants and a group of top UK scientists are behind the new non-profit organisation Foundation Earth that will issue the front-of-pack 'eco-scores' (pictured) on some food products from this September

According the M&S the eco-scores - which are backed by the government and opposition parties in the UK - will 'create a universal eco-labelling scheme that is based on good science and that customers can easily follow'.

Sainsbury's and Co-op, along with M&S, are joining Nestle, protein giant Tyson Foods and Spanish supermarket Eroski on the Foundation's industry advisory group.

Each has signed up to 'explore the potential for environmental labelling on food products and to support Foundation Earth's ambition to help build a more sustainable food industry', according to the group.

The traffic light system that will be used in the Foundation's pilot launch has been developed by Oxford University, with support from the The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The pilot programme will run at the same time as the intensive nine-month research and development programme, which will use the Oxford-devised method, along with a system created by an EU-funded consortium of Belgium's Leuven University and Spanish research agency AZTI.

According to the Foundation, both systems are world-leading and unique, in that they allow two products of the same type to be compared on their individual environmental merits.

This is done by using an analysis of the products complete life cycle, as opposed to simply using secondary data to estimate an entire product group's environmental impact.

Experts say that this method of individual assessment is crucial in order to encourage sustainable innovation in the international food supply chain.

'Foundation Earth's ambitions to develop eco-labelling on food has the potential to help address the urgent challenges of sustainability and climate change,' the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice said, backing the Foundation and eco-scores.

'The Government continues to support the industry to become more sustainable, for instance through our funding for the Waste and Resources Action Programme and support for the Courtauld 2025 initiative, which aims to cut carbon, water and food waste in the food and drink sector.'

The UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, has backed the Foundation's eco-scores, along with Labour's shadow secretary Luke Pollard

Labour's shadow secretary Luke Pollard also backed the launch of the initiative, saying: 'We know food production can be a contributor to both carbon emissions and biodiversity loss, so this will help people make more informed choices.

'People want to do what they can to tackle the climate crisis and help the environment. But at the moment they don't have the information they need to make more sustainable buying choices.

'I want to see clearer labelling on carbon and environmental credentials so people can back the brands and products doing the right thing by our planet.'

Foundation Earth was the brain-child of Denis Lynn, a Northern Irish food entrepreneur who tragically died in May when he was involved in a freak quadbike accident.

Lynn's firm Finnebrogue Artisan, which owns Britain's largest bacon brand Naked, will be one of the first food produces adding eco-scores to the products in Autumn.

Foundation Earth was the brain-child of Denis Lynn (pictured with Prince Charles in 2019), a Northern Irish food entrepreneur who tragically died in May when he was involved in a freak quadbike accident

Foundation Earth says by combining the two systems, the eco-scores on food packaging will give consumers a simple and clear way to assess the environmental impact of the products they are buying.

It says its goal is to promote sustainable buying choices from consumers and more environmentally-friendly innovation from producers by giving them an incentive of wanting to score better on the eco-scores.

'The development of a more transparent, sustainable global food supply system is of huge importance to the health of our planet and health of all citizens. We need a system based on the core principles of integrity,' said Professor Chris Elliott, the chair of the Foundation's scientific advisory committee.