NEW YORK — While carbon neutral is appearing on food and beverage product packaging, consumers are not that familiar with the concept, according to a survey from Morning Consult.

Morning Consult surveyed 2,210 US adults on July 26. When asked how often they buy products with a carbon-neutral label, 52% said they had not seen the label. Other answers were always at 6%, sometimes at 14%, rarely at 14% and never at 14%.

The survey also placed 1,358 of the respondents into an environmental group, meaning they said they had changed their behavior some or a lot because of climate change. Within the environmental group, the percentages were 49% for had not seen the label, 9% for always, 20% for sometimes, 14% for rarely and 9% for never.

Chart showing the percentage of consumers familiar and unfamiliar with carbon neutral claims

Respondents also were asked what carbon neutral means to them and given three options. The first option, a company that produces carbon emissions but uses carbon-offset programs to remove as much carbon as they produce from the atmosphere, was correct. The two incorrect options were a company that does not generate any carbon emissions during their manufacturing, provision or operational processes, and a company that produces carbon emissions without using any programs to offset the carbon emissions it produces.

Forty-one percent correctly identified the term while 29% were incorrect and 30% said they did not know. Within the environmental group, 45% correctly identified the meaning of carbon neutral, 32% did not, and 24% said they did not know.

Morning Consult, which has offices in New York, Washington and San Francisco, provides high-frequency survey research data.