The Eco-Score was deliberately designed to resemble the Nutri-Score food choice logo developed for the French government. With five coloured leaves (dark green, green, yellow, orange and red) and a letter from A to E, the logo makes it clear at a glance the extent to which a product burdens the environment. Both food choice logos are originally French. The methodology is public and was developed by Eco2, Yuka and Open Food Facts, among others. It was launched in January 2021. In Switzerland, an "Eco-Score" had emerged years earlier from the restaurant industry that is even more similar to the Nutri-Score.

The Belgian supermarket formula Colruyt decided to be the first to work with the coloured leaves of the Eco-Score, in March 2021. The company foresaw that the environmental impact of foods would become an important criterion for consumer choice. Dutch Lidl and Carrefour followed later. Lidl has now extended an initial pilot.

No transparency yet
Two aspects determine the final score: factors that influence the environment during the life cycle of the product on the one hand, and additional plus and minus points such as transport, certifications, and recyclability of packaging on the other hand. It is not the individual products, but 2,500 products that are made transparent in terms of their environmental impact. For example, the logo claims to make the environmental impact of meat and dairy comparable.

Marjolein Hanssen, consumer foods analyst at Rabobank, said that large-scale introduction of the logo will lead to direct competition between companies focused on sustainability, but not only that. Unlike the Nutri-Score, where all the information is already on the packaging, the environmental impact is much less transparent. This should grow as more companies start working with the Eco-Score.

The fear of mathematical models based on the worldviews of experts and partial perspectives is the reason for a European citizens' initiative that officially registered on June 30
One instead of many labels
According to research firm Innova Market Insights, consumers need one label that reflects the total environmental impact of a product. Multiple labels at once are confusing because consumers want a simple yes or no answer to the question of whether a product is responsible. Still only a small portion of food products have an Eco-Score because not all parameters for the score are publicly available. In the case of the Nutri-Score, this is easier because an algorithm can easily determine a score based on the ingredient declaration. According to Innova, 77% of food products already have a Nutri-Score.

In 2020, the Ecological Transition Agency of the French government asked for inspiration for logos that should make it easy for consumers to recognize sustainable products. That's how the Planet-Score emerged from an organic perspective. The logo was tested among the public in the summer of 2021. Like the Eco-Score, the Planet-Score gives a single score, but it also differentiates a product's performance according to its use of pesticides, animal welfare, and effects on biodiversity and climate change. And, as in the case of Eco-Score, there was also another "Planet-Score" made specifically for the packaging industry.


There does not seem to be much interest among the public for the standardization of what we can eat in good conscience
Different starting points and perspectives
While supermarkets are already implementing the Eco-Score, other logos are also in development. Although the Eco-Score and the Planet-Score are both based on mathematical models and data from the French Agency for Ecological Transition, this is a concern. Based on different assumptions and values of variables, conflicting mathematical models and logos based on them will develop. Where some consider dairy to be harmful and the consumption of chicken much more climate friendly, other experts contradict that based on other assumptions as this recent Dutch scientific study by WUR experts shows. A quick check of the Eco-Score algorithm makes me suspect that Dutch experts do not agree with the dairy score of the Eco-Score.

The fear of calculation models based on the worldviews of experts and partial perspectives is the reason for a European citizens' initiative that officially registered on June 30 last summer. It calls for the introduction of a single European eco-score (with a completely different logo) to avoid confusion and proliferation. The citizens' initiative began collecting signatures in late July 2021. Of the 1 million signatures needed, only 4,000 have been collected. There does not seem to be much interest among the public for the standardization of what we can eat in good conscience. Nevertheless, logo based standardization will determine what we eat and how it is produced.