Carbon footprint: Putting a ‘steak’ into the heart of the UK’s favourite meals


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
December 27, 2024


Steak, fries, and a cocktail. Image (C) Tim Sandle.

With 55 percent of vegans citing climate concerns as the main reason for adopting a plant-based diet, the environmental impact of food choices is an important consideration for many. Meal production and cooking alone can contribute up to 30 percent of a household’s carbon footprint.

Which common British dishes are the biggest environmental offenders?

With a 170 percent spike in searches for “how to reduce your carbon footprint” over the past months, interest in greener habits has surged, according to the firm Confused.com Energy. The company has uncovered which dishes leave the largest environmental mark by analysing their ingredients’ emissions, appliances used in the recipe, as well as the cooking time.

In sourcing the data, recipes and cooking times of each meal were collected through BBC Good Food, the serving size and ingredients were taken from the original recipe and inputted into a free food carbon footprint calculator, My Emissions. The values of the carbon footprint results are based on estimates of the emissions used from farm to store, including packaging and transport. This does not measure the emissions during storing, cooking or disposal of food.

Steak, fries, and a cocktail. Image (C) Tim Sandle.

With 55 percent of vegans citing climate concerns as the main reason for adopting a plant-based diet, the environmental impact of food choices is an important consideration for many. Meal production and cooking alone can contribute up to 30 percent of a household’s carbon footprint.

Which common British dishes are the biggest environmental offenders?

With a 170 percent spike in searches for “how to reduce your carbon footprint” over the past months, interest in greener habits has surged, according to the firm Confused.com Energy. The company has uncovered which dishes leave the largest environmental mark by analysing their ingredients’ emissions, appliances used in the recipe, as well as the cooking time.

In sourcing the data, recipes and cooking times of each meal were collected through BBC Good Food, the serving size and ingredients were taken from the original recipe and inputted into a free food carbon footprint calculator, My Emissions. The values of the carbon footprint results are based on estimates of the emissions used from farm to store, including packaging and transport. This does not measure the emissions during storing, cooking or disposal of food.

Top 10 British meals with high carbon emissions:

Rank	Popular Meals	Energy kWh	Carbon Rating	Carbon Footprint of recipe (gCO2e per serving)	kWh converted to CO2	Total Carbon footprint (gCO2)
1	Steak & Chips	0.9	E	10,131	142	10,273
2	Fettuccine Alfredo	0.3	C	8,421	41	8,462
3	Lasagna	3.3	E	5,769	540	6,309
4	Chilli Con Carne	1.5	E	5,925	243	6,168
5	Burritos	0.8	E	5,924	122	6,046
6	Spaghetti & Meatballs	0.8	E	4,936	122	5,058
7	Scampi & Chips	1.3	E	2,162	213	2,375
8	Toad in the Hole	1.5	D	1,914	243	2,157
9	Bangers & Mash	1.5	C	1,598	236	1,834
10	Vegetable Lasagna	2.5	B	1,390	405	1,795

From the above table and the full dataset, a meal of steak and chips has the highest carbon emissions during the cooking process, with a carbon footprint of 10,273g carbon dioxide per serving. The majority of emissions come from the recipe’s ingredients, as it releases only 142gCO2 during the cooking process.

In second, fettuccine alfredo releases 8,462 grams of carbon dioxide – the same as driving 60.5 kilometres. This dish is in the top 10 for lowest energy usage, at 0.3kWh, taking just 10 minutes in total to cook.

Lasagna is a popular meal despite it needing the most energy of all the meals (3.3kWh) to cook. The Italian dish has a carbon footprint of 6,309g carbon dioxide.

Chilli con carne emits an average carbon footprint of 6,168g carbon dioxide. With a total cooking time of an hour, it uses a total of 1.5kWh of energy costing a total of 9.2 pence per serving.

Another Mexican delicacy, the burrito has an average carbon footprint of 6,046g carbon dioxide which spans to 43.2 kilometres of driving.

Top 5 most energy-efficient meals of Britain:

Rank	Popular Meals	Energy kWh	Carbon Rating	Carbon Footprint of recipe (gCO2e per serving)	kWh converted to CO2	Total Carbon footprint (gCO2)
1	Chicken Casserole	0.625	B	431	101	532
2	Pasta Fagioli	0.875	A	399	142	541
3	Penne all’Arrabbiata	0.3	B	495	49	544
4	Tomato Soup	1.125	A	386	182	568
5	Beans on Toast	0.3917	B	591	64	655

In contrast, there are some dishes with a lower carbon footprint. The meat-base fare may not match the success of vegan and vegetarian fare, but they are substantially lower than others. Chicken casserole ranks as the most energy-efficient of the more popular meals, causing just 532 grams of carbon emissions and using only 0.625kWh of energy.

Pasta fagioli falls second with a carbon footprint of 541g carbon dioxide, three less than penne all’arrabbiata at 544g carbon dioxide.