Counting food’s carbon footprint - 7th October 2022

At a restaurant in southwest England, diners can choose their meal not just based on what they fancy, the cost or even its calorific content but now the dishes’ carbon footprint.

This summer “The Canteen” became the first restaurant in the UK to put its carbon footprint on the menu. It’s a campaign initiated by UK Vegan campaigning charity, Viva.

Laura Hellwig is the campaigns manager for Viva.

Laura Hellwig: "I think people are a lot more aware nowadays that the climate crisis is here and that they have to act. And obviously, we hope, we're urging the government to act by for example, implementing carbon counting. But it's also really important that people know people power's a big, big driver for change."

The Canteen is predominantly vegan with tasty dishes such as carrot and beetroot pakora with yoghurt sauce responsible for just 16 grams of CO2 emissions. So, in comparison to a UK produced burger, which comes in at a massive three kilograms of CO2, it's easy to see what the green choice is.

What do customers think of the carbon footprint labelling on the menu?

Enyioma Anomelechi.

Enyioma Anomelechi: "I think it's interesting. However, when I go out to eat, I normally go out for enjoyment, right? But if you could tell me, what, if I went shopping for example, eating at home - what my carbon footprint was for my shop, I'd be much more inclined to change what's in my shopping basket."

The restaurant sources most of its ingredients locally, this combined with a vegetarian menu keeps the carbon footprint of their dishes low. They teamed up with experts to calculate the impact of each dish from cradle to store. This included farming and packaging of their ingredients.

Nathan Johnson checked out the menu on a night out.

Nathan Johnson: "I think that's quite useful. I think it might, if I was choosing between two dishes, maybe depending on how hungry I was, I might choose the one with a lower, lower footprint, just you know, it's useful to see."

But does the carbon footprint necessarily have any impact on what people choose to eat?

Customer Sally Wright:

Sally Wright: "It wouldn't necessarily change how I ordered. But it would be interesting because I think it would strike up conversation when you're ordering, like over your table, which might then change your decisions when you're going shopping in the future."