Environmental labelling: communicating more and better

How and to what extent, quarter after quarter, is the presence of environmental labelling on products for sale in Italian supermarkets and hypermarkets changing? The sixth edition of the IdentiPack monitoring centre report, of which we report an extract (data collected in June 2024), gives us some answers

From cold products to meat, from fresh food to food groceries, from fish to beverages to fruit and vegetables, passing through home care, personal care and pet care, the number of packaged products present on the shelves of modern mass retail that indicate the material composition of the packaging is slowly growing.
This is confirmed by the data contained in the latest edition of Identipack, the national monitoring centre report on environmental labelling set up by CONAI and the non-profit organisation GS1 Italy: packages with so-called “talking” labels, that is, which communicate the composition of packaging bought by Italians, has exceeded 16.5 billion units, pushing the percentage of products with a material identification code up to 72,2% of total groceries (+2.5% compared to the previous year).
The gradual increase in packaging that communicates environmental information on the label is an important development: it’s not just a case of complying with regulations, but also of having understood the importance of providing environmental communication through the packaging.

The cold sector is in first place

Once again, the cold sector, which includes ice-creams and frozen foods, is confirmed the goods category with the highest percentage of “talking” packages” (58.3%), followed by meats (54.2%), fresh foods (52.5%), food groceries (51.5%) and the home care sector (49.1% up by 4.6% on last year). Fruit and vegetables have risen from 42.5% last year to 45.6% this year. Fish, personal care, beverages and pet care, instead, remain under an average of 40%, but of which products dedicated to “animal friends” have the best results: +5.9%, taking the percentage from 26.9% to 32.8%.

Correct disposal in sorted waste collection, thanks to the identification of the packaging material

An important element mapped by IdentiPack is, therefore, the presence on mass retail packages of indications of the type of packaging and on correct sorted waste disposal. This information is reported by over half of the 138,179 Immagino products analysed: 77,865 packages, for a percentage of 56.4%.
Looking at the volumes – with data referring to June 2024 – over 18.3 billion units were sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets, equal to 80% of total groceries. Both indicators are up compared to the previous year: the number of products furnished with this information has increased by 2.5 percent and that of packages sold by 1.9 percent. In some sectors this information is present on over 60% of the products analysed: the cold sector is in first place, followed by fresh foods, fruit and vegetables, meats and food groceries, with values more than 8 percent above the groceries average with regards to food groceries and meats, and more than 10 percent with regards to fruit and vegetables, fresh food and cold foods. Under the threshold of 56.4%, we find home care (55.2%), fish (44,4%), pet care (42%), personal care (36.9%) and beverages (36.2%).

Voluntary environmental labels

As companies become increasingly eager to showcase their sustainability practices, there is a growing tendency to include voluntary environmental labels or other self-declared environmental claims on packaging. Currently, a total of 11,454 product references carry this information, representing 8.3% of the grocery sector, an increase of 0.3 percentage points. Over the same period, more than 2.6 billion packages were sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets, accounting for 11.4% of all packaged consumer goods. Here too, the trend is positive with a 0.2 percentage point increase.
The home care sector has overtaken grocery as the most sustainability-conscious category, rising from 8.5% in the previous year’s survey to 9.1% (+0.6 percentage points).

Digital consultation still subdued

Limits of space on labels can be overcome by exploiting the potential of digital means, such as the Qr-code, through which companies can invite consumers to deepen their knowledge of the product. This approach, however, is largely ignored by Italian mass retail operators. Only the labels of 3.8% of grocery products analysed by Immagino, which correspond to 2.9% of packages sold in the year ending June 2024 by supermarkets and hypermarkets, invite customers to view environmental information digitally. The 5,186 products that invite the consumer to digitally view environmental information are very unevenly distributed among the ten product areas analysed, and are concentrated almost exclusively in the home care world, where 30.4% of reference products (practically one out of three), invite consumers to consult the internet to find out more about environmental issues.