--- title: Can Climate Warning Labels Cut Meat Consumption? description: Including a climate warning label on meat dishes in a U.K. experiment reduced how often participants chose meat by 7.4%, finds a new study. canonical: https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/ author: Kyla Mandel article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-01T18:12:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:54.119Z article:section: Climate og:title: What Happens When Diners Are Shown Climate Warning Labels on Meat Dishes og:description: Including a climate warning label on meat dishes in a U.K. experiment reduced how often study participants chose meat by 7.4%. og:url: https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e2dc94339f59b5/698a41d8e6e84aefbe2b0a6c/climate-warning-label-meat-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2065 og:image:height: 1162 og:image:alt: USA, New York City, Hamburgers on bbq og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Happens When Diners Are Shown Climate Warning Labels on Meat Dishes twitter:description: Including a climate warning label on meat dishes in a U.K. experiment reduced how often study participants chose meat by 7.4%. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e2dc94339f59b5/698a41d8e6e84aefbe2b0a6c/climate-warning-label-meat-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Happens When Diners Are Shown Climate Warning Labels on Meat Dishes > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Kyla Mandel](https://time.com/author/kyla-mandel/)  ## Kyla Mandel Mandel is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 1, 2023 6:12 PM UTC  Studies have shown that meat production contributes a significant amount—in the range of 14% and 20%—of global greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have shown that meat production contributes a significant amount—in the range of 14% and 20%—of global greenhouse gas emissions. Getty Images  by [Kyla Mandel](https://time.com/author/kyla-mandel/)  ## Kyla Mandel Mandel is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 1, 2023 6:12 PM UTC The power of the graphic health warning images on cigarette packages that entered widespread usage in the [early 2000s](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3725195/) has been well studied. Research [shows](https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/25/3/341) they were successful in [deterring](http://www.tobaccoinduceddiseases.org/Impact-of-Pictorial-Tobacco-Pack-Warnings-on-Youth-and-Young-Adults-A-Systematic,108614,0,2.html) people from smoking. In an era of unchecked planetary warming, some researchers wonder whether such a tactic could boost more sustainable behavior. It’s been tried [at the gas pump](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-19/where-are-all-the-climate-warning-labels-on-gas-pumps) (with inconclusive results) and now researchers are targeting meat. It seems like it could work. Including a [climate](https://time.com/section/climate/) warning label on meat dishes in a U.K. experiment reduced how often participants chose meat by 7.4%, according to a [new study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666323024881) published in the journal _Appetite_. Not only that, but the research suggests people would be okay with a policy requiring these types of labels. Meat has myriad impacts, from increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, to environmental pollution, increased emissions, and biodiversity loss. In addition, meat production can spread zoonotic diseases—early in the COVID-19 pandemic, factory farms were among the environments where the virus spread fastest. The researchers wanted to see which category of these concerns—health, climate, or pandemic—would be the most motivating to cut meat consumption. Led by Jack Hughes, a postgraduate researcher at Durham University’s psychology department, the study surveyed 1,001 adults in the U.K. Four groups of participants were asked to imagine they were in a university cafeteria and had to choose among four dinner options: meat, fish, vegetarian, and vegan. In one group, the meat option came with a warning label that read “Eating meat contributes to poor health,” paired with an image of someone having a heart attack. This saw an 8.8% drop in meat meal choices, compared to the control group. Another group was shown the climate warning label with a picture of deforestation—leading to a 7.4% decrease, while the third got a pandemic warning label with an image of exotic meat. This cut meat choices by 10%.  Study design showing the climate warning label displayed on a burger meat-option. Jack P. Hughes, et al.—Durham University Studies have shown that meat production contributes a significant amount—in the range of [14% and 20%](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23738600/un-fao-meat-dairy-livestock-emissions-methane-climate-change)—of global greenhouse gas emissions. A [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01605-8) from March 2023 warned that at current rates of food consumption the world will surpass 1.5°C of warming by the end of the century, in large part because of the methane that comes from livestock. [Switching to a plant-based diet](https://time.com/5648082/un-climate-report-less-meat/), therefore, can have a dramatic impact. As part of the U.K.’s strategy to cut emissions, the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government on its net-zero plans, has called for meat consumption in the country to be cut by 20% by 2030\. It was surprising, Hughes told TIME via email, “how large the effect of these labels was”—he thinks they could get the U.K. about halfway to its target. While the pandemic- and health-related warning labels had more impact than the climate label in the study, they weren’t the most popular as a policy option. Here, participants supported a climate label significantly more compared to the other two. (Or, at least, were ambivalent—whereas most participants actively opposed a policy on health or pandemic warnings.) This implies, says Hughes, “that putting warnings about the impact of meat on meat products might be less controversial than people might anticipate.” **Read more:** [_What to Eat if You Want to Save the Planet and Your Health_](https://time.com/6259363/best-diet-health-climate-impact/) The _Appetite_ study is the second of its kind to research the impact of climate warning labels on meat. In a [2021 study](https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-021-01178-9), researchers conducted a similar test in the U.S. but with text-only warnings on premade grocery store meat meals. They didn’t find any significant impact of these labels. The difference between the two studies could be due to cultural differences across countries. But, the success of the U.K. study compared to the one in the U.S. could also be chalked up to the inclusion of images alongside text. In addition, the U.K. researchers note, their version included a scientific reference to the source of information (in this case, the World Health Organization, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and Harvard Medical School), which may have bolstered the label’s effectiveness and credibility. “It is not up to me to speculate or recommend how companies and restaurants use this research,” says Hughes. “If these were to be implemented in the real world, what our research shows is that putting these warning labels alongside meat options when people are making decisions might be an effective way to reduce the amount of meat people are choosing.” **_A version of this story also appears in the_** **Climate is Everything** **_newsletter. To sign up,_** [**_click here_**](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletters/?newsletter%5Fname=climate&source=onsite)**_._** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/"},"headline":"What Happens When Diners Are Shown Climate Warning Labels on Meat Dishes","datePublished":"2023-11-01T18:12:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:52:54.119Z","description":"Including a climate warning label on meat dishes in a U.K. experiment reduced how often participants chose meat by 7.4%, finds a new study.","url":"https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/","keywords":["Food & Agriculture","climate change","embargoed study","healthscienceclimate","Climate Is Everything"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e2dc94339f59b5/698a41d8e6e84aefbe2b0a6c/climate-warning-label-meat-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyla Mandel","jobTitle":"Mandel is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/kyla-mandel/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e2dc94339f59b5/698a41d8e6e84aefbe2b0a6c/climate-warning-label-meat-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"USA, New York City, Hamburgers on bbq","caption":"Studies have shown that meat production contributes a significant amount—in the range of 14% and 20%—of global greenhouse gas emissions.","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/food-and-agriculture/","name":"Food & Agriculture"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6330520/climate-warning-labels-on-meat-study/","name":"What Happens When Diners Are Shown Climate Warning Labels on Meat Dishes"}}]}] ```