Benugo cafe in John Lewis, Oxford Street

Source: Benugo

Benugo is to roll out carbon labelling for cakes and chilled foods in its cafes and restaurants across the UK.

The café chain introduced a carbon labelling pilot in partnership with the Natural History Museum in September 2022. Now the labels will be available in all its sites, including the V&A, British Museum, Science Museum, Barbican, Benugo cafes in John Lewis and all Benugo high street locations.

The data and carbon labelling system has been developed and administered by Foodprint from Nutritics – a fully automated environmental impact scoring system for the hospitality and foodservice sector. Its labels highlight scoring levels of carbon impact from A-E, with A being the most climate-friendly choice.

It is part of its mission to help consumers make better choices. For example, it serves carbon neutral coffee in collaboration with ClimatePartner. It has also introduced wooden cutlery and paper straws, while salad bowls are made from 70% recycled plastic or press cardboard, and napkins are made from 100% recycled paper.

“We want to give our customers the option of making informed choices to reduce the carbon emissions associated with food purchased from our sites across the UK,” said Shane Kavanagh, commercial director at Benugo.

Using the Nutritics Foodprint solution enables the business to use software it has already deployed for its nutritional calculations.

“It allows us to treat carbon in the same way we treat a nutritional value, applying it to every food and drink item for which we have a recipe, helping customers make more sustainable choices, and helping us develop lower carbon food choices across our business,” Kavanagh added.

Nearly half of the population is trying to make eco-conscious choices when eating out of home, noted Stephen Nolan, Nutritics managing director.

“Foodprint scores, as presented at COP27, will help consumers understand how their food choices impact the environment,” he said.