With 55 percent of vegans citing climate concerns as the main reason for limiting their diet, the environmental impact of food choices is perhaps more relevant than ever. Meal production and cooking alone can contribute up to 30 percent of a household’s carbon footprint.
Which dishes are the biggest environmental offenders, and which ones are the most energy-efficient to cook?
The firm Confused.com Energy 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.
This reveals that steak and chips creates the most carbon emissions (10,273gCO2e) out of Britain’s most popular meals – equal to driving 73.4 kilometres. In contrast, nachos are the most energy-efficient using 0.125kWh per serving.
Another interesting finding is that chicken casserole has the lowest carbon footprint of all meals (532gCO2e) – equal to just 3.8 kilometres of driving.
Top 10 British meals with high carbon emissions are:
1 Steak & Chips
2 Fettuccine Alfredo
3 Lasagna
4 Chilli Con Carne
5 Burritos
6 Spaghetti & Meatballs
7 Scampi & Chips
8 Toad in the Hole
9 Bangers & Mash
10 Vegetable Lasagna
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 and chips has ranked as the ultimate British meal. But it has the highest carbon emissions during the cooking process, with a carbon footprint of 10,273gCO2 per serving. While this is an outstanding amount, the majority of emissions comes 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. The ingredients have a whopping carbon footprint of 8421gCO2, but the cooking emissions are relatively low at just 40.5gCO2. This dish is in the top 10 for lowest energy usage, at 0.3kWh, taking just 10 minutes in total to cook.
Over four in five Brits revealed lasagna is one of their favourite meals. That’s despite it needing the most energy of all the meals we analysed (3.3kWh) to cook. Lasagna can add 14p to your energy bill per serving, the Italian dish has a carbon footprint of 6,309gCO2.
In contrast, the top 5 most energy-efficient meals of Britain are:
1 Chicken Casserole
2 Pasta Fagioli
3 Penne all’Arrabbiata
4 Tomato Soup
5 Beans on Toast
As an example of the workings: Tomato soup would have used a stovetop (1500W) for 45 minutes:
• 45 minutes converted to hours – 45/60 = 0.75 hours
• Energy(kWh) = 1500W x 0.75hrs/1000 = 1.125kWh
• Cost = 1.125 kWh x 0.245 GBP = £0.276
• Cost per serving = £0.28/4 = £0.07
Total energy = 1.125 kWh
Total serving cost = £0.07p
The energy usage (kWh) was then multiplied by the UK’s average carbon intesnsity of 162g carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour (gC02/kWh). This was then added to the recipe’s gCO2e to create a final carbon footprint for each meal.
Chicken casserole has ranked as the most energy-efficient meal, causing just 532 grams of carbon emissions and using only 0.625kWh of energy. Pasta fagioli falls second with a carbon footprint of 541gCO2, three less than penne all’arrabbiata at 544gCO2.
Perhaps, based on these data, consumers should start to prioritise raw foods that do not need cooking and reducing your meat in-take. These can be great to help reduce your carbon footprint levels.
