Samenvatting

Awareness regarding the challenges involved in creating a sustainable food system has affected the ways in which businesses market their products and how consumers decide whether to buy these products. Businesses directly communicate different quality aspects of their products to consumers mainly through sustainability-related labels; however, these labels seem to be confusing to consumers.
The objective of this research was therefore to map the problem of label confusion and explore alternatives for reducing confusion amongst consumers. The central research question was as follows: In what way can the confusion amongst consumers that arises from the number of sustainability-related labels on food products be reduced?
To answer this question, literature on the concepts of sustainability and food labelling was reviewed, a survey was conducted amongst 137 respondents to explore label confusion, and a focus group of six individuals was convened to discuss in more detail both the confusion and possible ways to deal with it.

Based on this research, various factors were identified as being related to label confusion. First, there seems to be a mismatch between theory and practice with regard to how the concept of sustainability is understood. The degree of each product’s sustainable character should also be assessed on the basis of context-specific aspects. Furthermore, the number of sustainability-related labels is excessive, the recognisability of these labels is insufficient, the level of knowledge with regard to these labels amongst consumers is inadequate, and sustainability-related labels cause consumer distrust.
Perhaps one of the most promising suggestions for overcoming label confusion is to replace food product labels with a ‘wheel of five’ which is monitored by a single and independent institution (e.g., the International Organisation for Standardisation). Within this wheel of five, ‘sustainability’ should be subdivided into several elements that clearly represent the context-specific impact of buying a product based on factors such as its ingredients (i.e. the sustainable resources it uses), the production processes it involves (i.e. the impact it has in areas such as forestry, carbon emissions, and animal welfare), and the working conditions at its production site (e.g., salary and the use of child labour). Finally, the wheel of five could be implemented next to sustainability-related labels to verify its suitability and possibly initiate the transition to its use. As focussing on the Dutch consumer market is not sufficient for developing a sustainable food system on the international level, similar research in other countries could also be undertaken to realise the interdisciplinary nature of a sustainable food system.