Tesco's food labels to carry carbon confessions

Greenbang remembers a time when Tesco, was you know, not quite as ‘good’ as it is today. By ‘good’, Greenbang means lurking at the very most budget end of the supermarket spectrum. In fact, there were songs at Greenbang’s primary school sung about the alleged provenance of the clothes of the less fortunate among her classmates that invoked the Tesco name. They may have included the line ‘they are really nifty, they only cost £2.50 ner ner ner”

Which is neither here or there. What’s here and now, however, is Tesco’s announcement that it will trial ‘carbon labels’ on its own-brand products from next month, reports The Guardian.

These carbon labels will mean customers can measure the eco-friendliness of their shopping, just like ingredients labels expose their various nutritional values. The labels will state just how much CO2 each product generates through its manufacture, usage and disposal, as well as the product’s category average. Up to 70,000 own-brand Tesco products will sport these labels, which have been created with help from the Carbon Trust. Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco’s chief exec, says The details of the scheme will soon be unveiled.

All together: “Let’s all go to Tesco’s, where we can buy carbon labelled produce…”