In another store, I set my eyes on some anchovy filets: on the tin is a bright blue rectangle, where a stylised fish swims peacefully beneath the words “sustainable fishing”.

What do these statements actually mean? Probably not much, given Europe has no standard way of assessing and communicating the environmental impact of food.

In 2024, the European Court of Auditors warned that food labels in the EU are confusing and misleading, for example when a product is branded as “natural” with no evidence or explanation. This applies to claims about food's healthiness and its environmental impact: there are more than 200 different sustainability labels across the EU.

“For most products, there is no sustainability information available,” Koen Boone, coordinator research on of sustainable value chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, told us. “There is also no information on how to compare different product categories, so, for example, if an apple is more sustainable than a tomato.”

Consistent, science-based information on products would “help consumers make more informed choices and incentivise producers to measure and communicate their environmental impact better,” WWF Italy spokesperson Leonardo Daziani told us.

However, harmonising food labelling is not easy: countries (or even companies) prefer different methodologies, and labels should generally reflect each country's culture and language. The whole process can be costly, especially for small producers.

Some countries try to sort it out themselves. Since 2021, France is piloting a governmental program to display products' environmental cost. But as long as different evaluation criteria coexist and certified scores get lost in a jungle of uncertified ones, people struggle to identify trustworthy claims, a 2026 study of German consumers found.

Overall, consumers are sceptical about food's healthiness and sustainability, a qualitative study of people in 13 European countries found.

“When I go to a supermarket, I might buy the product with a logo saying ‘bio’ or ‘green’ to feel good about myself, but I know that doesn't really mean anything. And I, like most people, rarely have the time to study what that specific logo indicates,” Elia, a 31-year-old Italian resident, told us.

There are some ongoing efforts to make the European food system more transparent. The EU-backed Eco Food Choice Project, led by the French agency for ecological transition, is developing a methodology to collect and analyse data to be used for calculating a product's environmental score and testing its impact on consumers.

While consumers do have an impact, “they will not make a big difference on their own. We also need authorities, retail buyers, and the financial sector to make informed, sustainable decisions,” Boone, who is working on the project, explained to us.

Another European project, led by WWF Italy, is including environmental aspects that are often overlooked, such as soil health, biodiversity, and microplastic risks.

Daziani explained that their aim is not to create yet another food label, but to figure out how best to produce and communicate evidence on food's impact: “We need to improve the quality, reliability, and usability of environmental information to support the transition towards a more sustainable food system.”