In 2009, the Swedish National Food Administration created new food guidelines, which gave equal weight to climate and health in the form of carbon emissions calculations on food product packaging, just like nutrition information. This has spurred ideation around ways to further educate consumers on the impact food consumption has on the environment. The latest sustainability-based initiative to enter the consumer packaged goods industry is a practice called water footprint tracking, which indicates the amount of water used both directly and indirectly by consumers or producers. In Finland, Ravintoraisio has launched Elovena Oat Flakes, which come in a package that displays the product’s total water footprint per 100g of cereal. One of the first companies to include a water footprint indicator such as this, the flakes are processed with steam and do not require irrigation and artificial application of water to the soil.
Information in this column is from the Global New Products Database, the premier source of global product intelligence, published by Mintel International Group; 351 W. Hubbard, 8th Floor; Chicago, IL 60610; call: 312-932-0600; fax: 312-932-0474; or e-mail mhollihan@mintel.com.pf