BM introduces carbon labelling on menus

BM has become one of the first contract caterers in the UK to roll out carbon labelling across its business and industry sites.

By working in partnership with Nutritics, which provides the group's nutritional software, the company now offers its team an automated carbon footprint scoring system which helps produce carbon labels for its menus.

‘FoodPrint' will allow BM to generate a ‘carbon badge' for each recipe that can be added onto menus, like nutritional traffic light labels on food packaging.

Nutritics obtains carbon footprint data using data from suppliers if available and secondary data such as industry averages. The scoring system will account for the entire process of getting food from farm to plate, including the greenhouse gas emissions produced by growing, rearing, farming, processing and transporting.

According to Nutritics research, 49% of people consider sustainability when purchasing food or drink, while 42% would choose a venue because its signage displayed a commitment to reducing CO2 emissions.

BM teams have been trained in how FoodPrint works, to enable sites to generate carbon badges for their recipes, with all sites using the software from this month.

Sally Grimes, quality standards manager at BM, said: "Foodprint provides us with a reliable Scope 3 ESG reporting and carbon labelling system. Having this information empowers us as a business to make more informed decisions to help reduce our carbon footprint, but also allows our customers to see our sustainability journey, understand the impact of their food choices on the environment and make informed decisions themselves."

Fellow WSH brand Benugo is trialling carbon labelling at the Natural History Museum in London, while Compass Group is rolling out eco-labels across its B&I arm in the UK and Ireland.