Tate & Lyle keeps environmental impact labels on sugar bags short and sweet

Tate & Lyle is including a reference to food miles on cane sugar retail packs to indicate their impact on the environment, rather than declaring the carbon footprint of the products.

Simon Houghton-Dodd, Tate & Lyle quality & environment manager, said its sugar bags would refer consumers to its website for more information on the company's carbon emissions.

"We want to allay concerns about food miles from cane sugar without adding to consumer confusion," said Houghton-Dodd, speaking at the Society of Food Hygiene & Technology's Sustainability 2008 seminar in Bracknell, Berkshire. "Our current position is not to put a [carbon footprint] number on a product. But we will talk about food miles." He said carbon footprint calculation was too complex to address on food labels.

Tate & Lyle has been working on figures for UK cane and beet sugar's primary carbon footprint, generated through the combustion of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, since September. This year it will also be working on UK sugar's secondary/lifecycle footprint, including indirect emissions from the entire product lifecycle, incorporating manufacture and disposal, said Houghton-Dodd.

For Tate & Lyle's cane sugar, the two areas most responsible for emissions were refining, at 35-37%, and packaging and transportation, at 18-20%. Figures were developed using methodology from management services firm URS Corporation.