Counting food’s carbon footprint - 7th October 2022

At restaurants, diners might choose a dish they fancy eating, or look at the price, or even the calories. In southwest England, there's now a restaurant where you can choose your meal based on the carbon footprint.

Viva!, a UK Vegan charity, is helping people become more aware of their food’s carbon footprint. They helped “The Canteen” with the information for their menu.

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 prepares vegan and vegetarian meals. Carrot and beetroot with yoghurt is one, and the carbon footprint is just 16 grams of CO2, which is relatively low. A hamburger's carbon footprint, in comparison, is a whopping three kilos. So veggie dishes are a good option for the climate. Is carbon footprint labelling something customers like?

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."

Another way the restaurant keeps the carbon footprint of their dishes low, is by buying most of its ingredients locally or regionally. Transport, farming and packaging all come into the calculation of the total emissions of each dish. Nathan Johnson went to try the place 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."

Does the carbon footprint influence what people decide to order off the menu?

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."