Share of sustainable quality labels rises in 2021

The share of products with a more sustainable label in total food sales in supermarkets continues to grow. In 2021, sales of more sustainable products grew stronger than total food sales in supermarkets, reaching the highest share ever. Over the year as a whole, 21% of total food sales are already accounted for by products with a more sustainable label. The trend towards more sustainable food is therefore one that is persisting. This is evident from the latest figures from the Retail Quality Mark Monitor compiled by research bureau IRI.

Due to the general switch from chicken to the Beter Leven Keurmerk (Better Life Certification), the growth in share will continue in the coming years. Currently, more than 20% of chicken products have a Beter Leven Keurmerk and this will rise to 100% by the end of 2023. In addition, the interest in organic products from the market, the EU and the Dutch government will have a positive effect.

With a 'sustainable share' of more than 81%, eggs remain the most sustainable category. However, fish is catching up. In this category, more than 79% of all sales consisted of products with a more sustainable label in 2021. Coffee/tea is the third largest category in terms of sales share with 49.6%. Within meat and meat products, the sustainability share grew to 44.1%.

The Better Life label remains by far the largest label with €2.7 billion in turnover, but the ASC and Biological labels showed the strongest growth over the past year 2021, with +5.4% and +0.5% respectively.

View the Ecolabel report FY 2021 (Dutch only)