Food systems are a major contributor to environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, with widespread dietary changes required to avoid surpassing safe planetary boundaries by 2050. A study published in Elsevier’s Journal of Cleaner Production analyses the dimensions underlying public perceptions and misperceptions of food’s environmental impact.

To promote dietary shifts among the public it is crucial to understand how people perceive the environmental impact of food products, writes a team from the UK’s University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology. However, prior investigations into this topic have covered only a narrow range of product types and elicited perceptions using researcher-imposed, single-item environmental friendliness scales.

The team of researchers conducted a card sorting study in which UK participants organised a diverse range of supermarket food products into environmental impact categories that they created and labelled themselves. Participants subsequently viewed product-level scientific impact estimates and reported whether they were surprised by how high or low each impact was.

The outcome indicated a two-dimensional solution, with participants primarily distinguishing products by animal versus plant-origin and level of processing. Category labels assigned during the sorting task and participants’ self-reported surprise at scientific impact estimates suggested they tended to overestimate the impact of highly processed foods and underestimate the impact of water-intensive products (eg nuts).

The results provide novel insight into consumers’ mental representations of food sustainability, with implications for the development of strategies such as eco-labelling and public awareness campaigns.