School meal carbon labelling increases eco food choices

School food provider Sodexo has introduced carbon-labelled school meals at 12 secondary academies in its Oasis Community Learning portfolio, following a successful trial earlier this year which saw an uptake in low carbon options such as chickpea curry and white bean chilli.

The food industry accounts for around 30% of all greenhouse gases emitted around the world.  Studies suggest this figure could be cut in half if more people were encouraged to think about how much CO2e they put on their plates, and adapt their diets to introduce more climate-smart food to mealtimes.

Sodexo, which provides more than 100,000 school meals per day around the UK, carried out a trial using a CO2e labelling application (Klimato) at two academies, Oasis Academy Arena in Croydon, south London and Oasis Academy MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester.

Sodexo uses the app to calculate the quantitative carbon footprint of each of the main courses on its secondary school menu and has created a traffic light system with ‘low-medium-high’ CO2 emissions labels so the students can see at a glance the environmental impact of each dish.

To help educate its young diners on the carbon labelling Sodexo’s marketing team developed eye-catching promotional artwork for the dining rooms, pull up banners, bunting, flyers and branded t-shirts to launch the initiative at the two trial sites.

The campaign captured the imagination of the students and results from the initial months of the trial, show an increase in uptake of CO2e friendly options at both Oasis Academy MediaCityUK and Oasis Academy Arena.

At both academies the number of students choosing low carbon meals (0.1-0.5 kg CO2e) increased - at Oasis Academy MediaCityUK it increased from 78% to 90% and at Oasis Academy Arena it increased 71% to 88%.          

The average kg CO2e per meal reduced at both academies - Oasis Academy MediaCityUK reduced from 0.6 to 0.4 and at Oasis Academy Arena it reduced from 0.5 to 0.4.

The results from the trial are also helping to inform ongoing menu development. Chickpea curries and white bean chilli dishes are proving popular, whilst popular high CO2e recipes such as beef jollof, cottage pie and beef lasagne are being reviewed to replace part of the meat content with high quality plant-based protein alternatives to lower the carbon impact of that dish.
 
John Barneby, Chief Operating Officer, Oasis Community Learning said: “As an education provider, Oasis Community Learning recognises its responsibility to protect the environment for the current and future generations.  We are pleased with the success of Sodexo’s carbon-labelling trial which has been well-received and is contributing to our net zero journey.”