Sustainability label Eco-score has to be renamed, after a complaint by organic farming organisation IFOAM.
Confusing
IFOAM, the umbrella organisation for organic food and farming, had launched a complaint late last year against the sustainability label that is being used by Belgian retailer Colruyt Group as well as by its French creators Yuka and ADEME. The organisation called the name “confusing” because it might cause consumers to believe that the prefix “eco” would mean that products with a positive score are in fact organic products, while this is not (necessarily) the case.
The European Union legislation specifies that terms like “bio” and “eco” must not be used if they can confuse customers, so both parties have now agreed that the label Eco-Score will be discontinued at the end of the year at the latest. The signatories do stress that they “they agree on the importance of providing consumers with reliable and transparent information on the environmental impact of food products in order to help them make more responsible and sustainable choices”.
In a response to Vilt, Colruyt says that it “has not started adapting the label”, as the green leaf is being recognised by 50 % of the consumers and trusted by 72 %.
