Just Eat For Business is set to carry out a carbon labelling trial to calculate the carbon emissions of main menu dishes, hoping to raise the awareness of the carbon impact of food.

Seeking to encourage its restaurant partners and corporate consumers to make sustainable food choices, Just Eat for Business will be working with 12 independent restaurant partners, including Urban Greens, Atcha, Choppaluna and Hala Wala to carry out the trial. 

The trial will take place over three months and will build on the findings of Just Eat’s previous carbon labelling trial. It is being carried out in partnership with My Emissions, a provider of food carbon calculations and labelling.

The calculations from My Emissions will be used to display a carbon label that will inform customers and businesses on food related carbon emissions that Just Eat for Business hopes will support them in making “more climate conscious food choices”.

The 12 participating restaurants will display a carbon label rated from A (Very Low carbon impact) to E (Very High carbon impact) by incorporating a traffic light colour system on their Just Eat for Business page. The ratings take into account the farming, production, transport and packaging of the dishes. As an example, based on the products assessed during the carbon labelling trials, a typical beef burger (E-rated) produces four times more emissions than a typical chicken burger (C-rated).

“The insights can help customers to make more informed choices about what they order and restaurants to make informed decisions about the ingredients they use,” said Just Eat for Business.

According to the results of a recent survey carried out by the company, 91 percent of respondents said that their business’ values “play an important part in their employee wellbeing”. Meanwhile nearly half of respondents also said that they consider the environmental impact of the food they’re ordering into the office.

“From this data, it is evident that workers care about their business’ sustainability values and the environmental impact of the food they are consuming,” continued Just Eat for Business.

 Commenting on the upcoming trial, Matt Ephgrave, Managing Director at Just Eat for Business: “Exploring ways to minimise our environmental impact remains an important topic for us, and we believe extending this to also support our independent restaurant partners on their sustainability journey is key.

“Through this carbon labelling trial, we aim to help our restaurant partners better understand the carbon impact that their food options have whilst also empowering workers to make more climate conscious food decisions.”

 “We’re excited to be part of the journey to making the food delivery industry more environmentally friendly and are looking forward to seeing more and more businesses adopt the same approach,” continued Ephgrave.

Meanwhile Matthew Isaacs, Co-Founder of My Emissions, explained that the trial offers an opportunity for consumers and restaurants to “learn more about how our carbon labels can impact a variety of customers’ choices and increase awareness of the impact of carbon emissions in the food industry.”