The economic, environmental and social performance of European certified food

To identify whether EU certified food – here organic and geographical indications is more sustainable than a conventional reference, we developed 25 indicators covering the three sustainability pillars. Original data was collected on 52 products at farm, processing retail levels, allowing estimation of circa 2000 indicator values. Most strikingly, show that, in our sample, outperforms its non-certified reference most economic social indicators. On major environmental carbon water footprint their performance similar. Although 61% expensive, extra-performance per euro similar to classical policy interventions improve diet such as subsidies or taxes. Cumulatively, findings legitimate recent initiatives by standards cover broader aspects.