Supermarket foods claiming to be ‘natural’ or ‘sustainable’ mostly just using marketing terms, researchers find

Of 27,000 packaged foods assessed at Coles, Woolworths and other grocers, one in four carried a sustainability claim. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

Foods in supermarkets boasting environmental terms such as “natural” or “sustainable” are mostly just using marketing speak, rather than verified claims, Australian researchers have found.

More than 27,000 packaged foods sold at Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Harris Farm supermarkets in Sydney were assessed by researchers from the George Institute for Global Health.