Plain language summary
Food production is one of the main contributors to worldwide environmental damage. However, environmental considerations during food production usually result in higher production costs, which then get passed onto the consumer. Cost is a consideration when consumers are selecting food and higher costs may be detrimental to sales. Environmental impact labels or ecolabels are a way of identifying products with more sustainable production methods and can be occasionally found on products. This systematic review of 43 papers aimed to determine if and how much people are willing to pay for eco-labelled products compared to those unlabelled and if different messages on the ecolabel determine the willingness to pay for that food. The results showed that consumers were prepared to pay a premium for eco-labelled products and that consumers were willing to pay more for foods which were labelled as organic. Women and individuals with lower incomes were more willing to pay for eco-labelled products. It was concluded that consumers are willing to pay more for eco-labelled products and that could encourage people to have a more sustainable diet. This study could be used by healthcare professionals to understand that product labelling can significantly affect food choices and that cost isn’t necessarily the main factor for decision making.
Abstract
Food production is a major contributor to environmental damage. More environmentally sustainable foods could incur higher costs for consumers. In this review, we explore whether consumers are willing to pay (WTP) more for foods with environmental sustainability labels ('ecolabels'). Six electronic databases were searched for experiments on consumers' willingness to pay for ecolabelled food. Monetary values were converted to Purchasing Power Parity dollars and adjusted for country-specific inflation. Studies were meta-analysed and effect sizes with confidence intervals were calculated for the whole sample and for pre-specified subgroups defined as meat-dairy, seafood, and fruits-vegetables-nuts. Meta-regressions tested the role of label attributes and demographic characteristics on participants' WTP. Forty-three discrete choice experiments (DCEs) with 41,777 participants were eligible for inclusion. Thirty-five DCEs (n = 35,725) had usable data for the meta-analysis. Participants were willing to pay a premium of 3.79 PPP$/kg (95%CI 2.7, 4.89, p ≤ 0.001) for ecolabelled foods. WTP was higher for organic labels compared to other labels. Women and people with lower levels of education expressed higher WTP. Ecolabels may increase consumers' willingness to pay more for environmentally sustainable products and could be part of a strategy to encourage a transition to more sustainable diets.
Methodological quality
Jadad score
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Not applicable
Allocation concealment
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