'Sustainable products have to win the health battle,' Mintel on environmental trends in food, beverage

"Consumers' second biggest concern — and the biggest concern in the United States — is air quality, which obviously has massive ramifications around manufacturing emissions but also around distribution emissions. You are going to see more claims around packaging weight being diminished and reducing distribution emissions. It is mitigating the damage done — that is something we expect to see more," Richard Cope, senior trends consultant at Mintel and author of the report, told FoodNavigator-USA.

Consumers turn to ‘self-preservation’ amid climate change

In June, Mintel surveyed 10,000 consumers​ from 10 countries, including the US, UK, China, India, Japan, Brazil, France, Italy and Spain, about their attitudes on environmental issues and sustainability claims.

Ultimately, “sustainable products have to win the health battle” and fit into consumer demands for a balanced diet, Cope summarized.

For instance, many shoppers are moderating meat consumption as opposed to giving meat up entirely, though eating less meat remains an important aspect of combating climate change, he noted.

“In the time we have been doing this research, proportions of vegetarians or vegans or pescatarians are going nowhere. They have just plateaued. They are not really growing. Meat consumption and dairy consumption are really entrenched. It is one of the top products in people's weekly grocery [trips],” Cope elaborated.  

He added, “When we ask people, 'Do you eat meat or poultry at most meals or on most days?' The average [that eat meat] is 32%. In America, it goes up to 44%, but that is still behind France and the UK."

Also, consumers are resorting to self-preservation behaviors — preserving resources like food, water, etc. — as shoppers feel the first-hand impact of manmade climate change, Cope explained.

Approximately a third (34%) of global consumers are concerned about air quality and a key concern for those impacted by forest fires, Cope said. Additionally, shoppers still worry about plastic pollution, but “consumers always prioritize the packaging performance ahead of any environmental credentials,” he added.

“Thirty percent of US consumers say plastic pollution is one of their top three environmental concerns, and the same amount say water conservation is one of their top three environmental concerns — and that is where Americans are a bit above the average on that. Water shortage is obviously something [that] is happening a lot around the world. The majority of the world's population experience some water stress conditions during the course of a year,” Cope said.

From greenwashing to ‘greenhushing:’ Brands change tactics on sustainability claims

Following high-profile cases of greenwashing, consumers are scrutinizing sustainability claims more often, as they become more educated on environmental issues, Cope explained.

This year, the Advertising Standards Authority​ — a self-regulated advertising trade group in the UK — cracked down on certain marketing claims around sustainability, which had a ripple effect on how companies thought about their sustainability messaging elsewhere in the world, he noted.

Eco-activists are becoming top educators about environmental issues, including greenwashing, as many shoppers distrust company claims, Mintel reported. More than a third (35%) of global consumers say they do not trust companies to be honest about their environmental impact.

Additionally, 43% of US consumers and 37% of UK shoppers say activists raise awareness on sustainability issues, up from 2023-2024 numbers of 36% and 30%, respectively.

Consumers' skepticism of sustainability claims is valid, as “there are a lot of bad metrics out there,” Cope noted.  

“There are a lot of [companies] going for the low-hanging fruit or putting out statistics [that] are actually only about one stage of the production process of the product, rather than the whole life cycle of it. [Consumers] are right to be cynical in a healthy way,” Cope elaborated.  

He added, “There are a lot of [companies] who are basing a lot of their carbon-neutrality claims … on offsetting projects on the other side of the world, where it is impossible to prove if they are actually having an impact or not, rather than taking direct action themselves. ... What we are seeing as a result of that though is this greenhushing.”

With greenhushing, CPG brands prioritize a specific health attribute or how they are helping farmers as opposed to sweeping sustainability claims, Cope explained.

Can a Nutri-Score-style rating system lead consumers to greener products?

Consumers are interested in a rating system similar to the Nutri-Score system — a ranking system used throughout Europe to denote a product’s nutrient content — for sustainability claims, he added.

Nearly a third (30%) of consumers surveyed said that a Nutri-score-style rating scale for sustainability is one of the on-pack sustainability claims that would significantly impact their purchase decision.

“Ultimately, what people want is just to know if they are going to a particular retailer or shop a particular brand that they do not have to think about [sustainability]. They just [want to] know that this is a very responsible company. ... They want that curation. People want convenience,” Cope said.