Strong Roots Continues Mission to ‘Fix the Freezer Aisle’ with Carbon-Labeled Foods

The Ireland-based B Corp joins a growing number of brands aiming to help consumers understand how its products fit into a more climate-conscious approach to eating.

Published 2 years ago | About a 2 minute read

Image: Strong Roots

Strong Roots — the company on a mission to “fix the freezer aisle” with its ever-expanding range of healthy, plant-based products — has joined the growing ranks of food brands to embrace carbon footprint labeling. This makes Strong Roots the first frozen, plant-based brand to display on-pack climate footprint scores for its products.

It’s been over 25 years since food packaging first displayed nutritional information, enabling consumers to make more informed decisions. Ireland-based Strong Roots, a certified B Corp, is now going a step further — to help its customers to quickly understand how their food choices affect their climate impact.

“Shoppers choose a B Corp brand for a reason. With sustainability at the core of our product offering, we wanted to illustrate how proud we are of our conscious attitude towards our footprint and to educate people on their personal carbon usage,” said founder and CEO Samuel Dennigan. “Placing carbon details front-of-pack is a small change for us, but it has a big impact in placing sustainability front of mind. I believe that as food producers it is our job to make food better; and we at Strong Roots will continue to remain hungry for new food innovations that can do this.”

Image credit: Strong Roots

With its growing line of veg burgers, root vegetable fries, and healthy hash browns and bites, Strong Roots has been expanding its global reach — its products are now sold in over 10,000 stores worldwide. With the frozen food category outgrowing fresh by 230 percent so far this year, and over 50 percent of US shoppers saying that rising meat prices have made them more curious about trying plant-based food options, the Strong Roots team has grown 48 percent this year and seen a 33.5 percent increase in sales YOY in the US alone. The company raised $55M in strategic investment from McCain Foods at the start of the year to fuel growth.

Strong Roots will showcase its new carbon-labeled packaging on its core product offering this week at Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia.

The sustainability or carbon footprint of food items has become a growing consideration for conscientious eaters — recent research suggests that consumers are willing to pay more for food products that exhibit a lower carbon footprint and in restaurants, carefully reframing menu language can successfully nudge diners toward more climate-friendly food options. And forward-thinking foodies in the US have responded to identifiers such as Just Salad’s carbon-labeled menu items; Chipotle’s Foodprint app; and WRI’s Cool Food Meals certification, which can now be found at Panera and Nestlé foodservice locations nationwide.