Yuka, Marmiton, La FOurche, Etiquettable ... Ten food players are launching, at the beginning of January 2021, an eco-score which aims to inform consumers of the environmental impact of the product they are about to buy .

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DUCLOS ALEXIS / SIPA

  • The Yuka, Ettiquetable and Open food facts consumer applications, the Marmiton recipe site, the food delivery startup Foodcheri… In total, ten food players are launching their eco-score this Thursday.

  • This environmental display, in the form of a rating from A to E, will be affixed to the food products that these players offer.

    With the idea of ​​informing the French of the environmental impact of the products they consume.

  • To do so, this eco-score is mainly based on "Life cycle analysis", a method developed by the Agribalyse working group led by Ademe, but which has its limits, point out to NGOs.

We are now well aware of the nutri-score, this note on food products on the shelves set up in France since 2016 and which displays their nutritional value.

From A on a dark green background, for the most virtuous, to E on a red background, for the dunces.

Using the same code, a collective of ten food players - from Yuka to Marmiton, via Foodcheri or the organic online grocery store La Fourche - officially launched an eco-score this Thursday.

The idea this time is to give, at a glance, the environmental impact of food products.

“It's not just an educational tool,” warns Shafik Asal, co-founder of the consulting firm ECO2 Initiative, also a member of the collective.

It also aims for change, by directing consumers towards more eco-responsible food and by pushing manufacturers and sellers to be more transparent.

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A step ahead of the government?

This eco-score is now displayed on Foodcheri's take-away meals, recipes offered by Marmiton, 2,500 food references offered by La Fourche… Above all, the Open Food Facts association, to see as the wikipedia of the product sheet, also in the collective, calculated the eco-score on more than 240,000 products.

"That is about a good third of the products listed on our database and found in France", indicates Pierre Slamich, its co-founder.

The law on the fight against waste, published in February 2020, provides for the entry into force of an environmental label on food products at the end of 2020.

These ten food players are taking the lead, launching their own initiative now.

"We are an independent collective and our eco-score did not have any endorsement from the Ministry of Ecological Transition," says Shafik Asal.

In other words, we could quickly end up with two “Eco-scores”, or even a larger number if other private actors in turn launch their own initiatives.

Not a problem in the eyes of the collective which ensures that "several initiatives can coexist while waiting for an official environmental display".

Life cycle analysis, the first pillar of the note

This plurality of voices and approaches appears all the more desirable since there is no one method that is unanimously accepted today for reporting on the environmental impact of food products.

To calculate their eco-score, these ten food players mainly rely on the work of Agribalyse, a database developed over the past ten years by a group of experts led by Ademe (Agence de l environment and energy management).

Agribalyse seeks to measure the environmental impact of agricultural and food products by reasoning in terms of life cycle analysis (LCA).

Clearly, the method not only focuses on the production phase, but takes into account all the stages through which a product passes, from fork to fork, explains Shafik Asal.

And by environmental impact, Agribalyse is not only interested in CO2 emissions, but takes into account the pollution of air, water, soil etc ... "

Agribalyse is thus based on fourteen environmental indicators and gives, for 2,500 product categories, a score noted out of 100. “A large scientific work potentially very useful but which cannot be used in the current state because it includes limits, This is what Ademe is aware of, ”explains Christophe Hurbin, co-founder of MyLabel, an application to help more sustainable consumption.

Six criteria to erase the limits of Agribalyse

Seventeen environmental associations expressed concern about these limits last December.

They already pointed to the poor and incomplete taking into account of damage to biodiversity and the impact of pesticides in LCA.

“This method also measures the environmental impacts per kilo or liter of product, in other words according to yields, regrets Agathe Gignoux, head of public and legal affairs for CIWF France, an animal welfare association.

This gives a significant advantage to intensive agriculture which, for the same quantity of raw materials used, will produce more than organic agriculture.

But the latter has other advantages in terms of biodiversity [lower use of pesticides] or animal welfare.

However, these two points are not included in the indicator.

"

To counter these limits, the eco-score launched this Thursday completes the LCA with six additional criteria that allow the rated product to generate bonus points or, on the contrary, to be subtracted from penalty points.

“We thus take into account the labels, the origin of the products, the environmental policy of the producing country [based on the index established by Yale University], list François Martin, co-founder of Yuka.

We are also adding an “endangered species” criterion, another on the recyclability of the packaging, or the seasonality of the ingredients.

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The optimal method still to be found?

Sufficient?

Agathe Gignoux remains on her guard.

"For example, it seems very important to us to take into account the mode of production [organic, conventional agriculture, outdoor breeding, etc.] in the preparation of the note", she slips in particular.

“We do it through the criteria of labels,” answers Shafik Asal.

It can give up to 20 additional points which are awarded according to the level of commitment and environmental benefits that the label of the product in question makes it possible to estimate.

And these labels, often, are attached to a particular production model.

A red label beef, for example, must be fed mainly on grass.

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Another fear pointed out by Agathe Gignoux, more global this time, is that environmental labeling "amounts to putting environmental issues in competition with each other, which are equally important".

“The risk then is that the weak points of a product are outweighed by its strong points and that the vast majority of products end up in a soft stomach, with a rating that is neither too good nor too bad.

Environmental labeling would then no longer be of any help to consumers.

"

In the eco-score launched this Thursday, the Nutella spread thus collects a not too bad “C” despite the use of palm oil in its recipe.

Enough to prove Agathe Ginoux right?

The collective justifies the note: "The brand would have lost points in this area a few years ago, but now supplies itself with certified sustainable palm oil and is now considered a good student in this area."

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