Last week we looked at where consumers find eco-friendly product information and found that packaging and labels rank among the top sources. This week we look at what consumers prioritize when choosing food and beverages, and how brands can use that to make sustainability information on the label more visible and more effective. Read last week’s post on our website here .
Food and beverage labels are one of the most powerful sustainability communication tools brands have. Consumers are reading labels, and what they find drives real decisions about which brands they buy, which they abandon, and which they pay more for. The question is whether sustainability information is visible, specific, and compelling enough to cut through everything else competing for attention at that moment.
Nearly two thirds of consumers always or often read food and beverage labels.
Sixty-four percent always or often read labels when shopping for food and beverages, and 87% do so at least sometimes. That makes the label one of the highest-engagement touchpoints a food or beverage brand controls. And the behavior that follows is consequential. Sixty-nine percent have sometimes or more switched to a new regular brand after reading a label, 65% have abandoned a purchase, and 64% have paid more for an alternative.
The label is where purchase decisions are made and remade, which makes what brands put there one of the most consequential sustainability communication decisions they make.
Sustainability matters to most food and beverage shoppers, but taste, price, and nutrition come first.
When it comes to what consumers consider important when choosing food and beverages, the hierarchy is clear. And since 64% are reading labels when they shop, this is effectively what they are scanning for. Taste and quality (87%) and price (78%) lead. Nutritional value (70%) follows. Natural and organic ingredients (44%) sit in the middle. Environmentally friendly packaging (37%) and environmental impact of ingredients (36%) sit below.
Consumers don't arrive at the label looking for sustainability information first. That means the connection between sustainability and what they are looking for (health, quality, value) has to be made clearly and deliberately on the label itself.
For brands, this points to two labeling priorities. Connect sustainability to health wherever the claim is substantiated as consumers respond more strongly to sustainability information that speaks to personal benefit alongside environmental benefit. And be specific. A label that says "made with ingredients that use 30% less water" is doing more work than one that says "environmentally responsible." The label is where sustainability investment either pays off or disappears into the background.
What's the Takeaway?
Consumers are reading food and beverage labels and making real decisions based on what they find. Sustainability has earned a place on the label, but it competes with taste, price, and nutrition for attention. The brands that make sustainability persuasive on the label are those that connect environmental claims to health benefits and back them up with specific, verifiable information. Broad sustainability language sits in the background. Precise, health-connected claims move people.