ECO-LABELLING

Tesco has now put a carbon footprint on its milk. Wal-Mart wants to develop an environmental rating system for product labels. The UK Government is reported to be thinking of a scheme which might cover animal welfare, use of chemicals, packaging and food miles.

Carbon may well be a good starting point, but there are already many different ways of measuring and communicating this. Eventually, I believe eco-labelling will follow the same route as nutrition labelling. Both will need to cover a range of standard elements, which will be constantly debated and reviewed. Consistency and comparability will be vital.

I think the best scheme so far is one we devised at Zenith nearly two years ago under our proposed Carbon Action Plan. It was never implemented, because it was ahead of its time and expensive to pioneer. But here it is again.

Do ask if you would like to know more.

BIG CHANGE IN WHAT AMERICANS DRINK

Checking through some trend analysis over the summer, I paused again at a set of figures I questioned when I first read them.

They come from the admirable Beverage Digest newsletter and tell quite a tale. They are in US gallons per person for 2007 and 2008. The key findings are these:

• Carbonated soft drinks lead, but declined by 2 gallons.
• Bottled water was second in 2007, but dropped by 1 gallon in 2008.
• As a result, bottled water fell to third place behind beer.
• Tap water gained all three of these lost gallons.

Clearly it’s not quite so simple, but this does show how the economic recession has hit consumer spending on some discretionary choices.

MENU CALORIES

What starts in New York or California often spreads over a period of years across the United States, then into Europe and many other countries around the world.

Menu calories were introduced as a requirement for New York restaurants in March 2008. California followed last month. National US legislation is now being considered.

There is no doubt why they could be worthwhile. The world is becoming more obese. This is bad for health and expensive to tackle. Consumers typically underestimate the calories in restaurant foods. So more information should help curb excess.

Will it work ? A bit, probably, over time. Restaurant occasions are more about leisure than education. But the media will highlight the worst cases, teachers will alert kids and kids will challenge parents.

The same could well be the case with menu miles, though this is more likely to continue as a voluntary fad for longer. As fuel prices rise, people will become more conscious of the environmental cost of food miles. Opinion leading restaurants will add menu miles to show how much or how little their food and wine have travelled to reach us.

At least there’s more space on a menu than a small label. It may take some of the fun away from an evening out, but it will also add a lot to talk about and act on.