Would these labels influence your takeaway order? Just Eat is trialling carbon labels

By William On Mar 9, 2023

With snow covering much of the UK, many Brits will be looking forward to curling up on the couch with a delicious takeaway this weekend.

But if you order through the Just Eat app, a new feature may affect your decision.

The food delivery platform is adding carbon ratings in a new trial designed to encourage customers to choose more environmentally friendly meals.

The traffic light-like rating system will take into account the cultivation, production, transport and packaging of dishes.

“This trial, with the support of our restaurant partners, aims to empower and educate our consumers about the impact food choices can have on our planet,” said Jaz Rabadia, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Just Eat.

Just Eat adds carbon values to new trial designed to encourage customers to choose more environmentally friendly meals

Ratings range from ‘A’, indicating very low carbon impact, to E, indicating very high carbon impact

Just Eat has joined forces with My Emissions for the trial, which will take place in five Brighton restaurants over the next 12 weeks.

The menus for these restaurants — Smoque Burger, No Catch, Brewdog, Fat Pizza, and Fat Burgers and Desserts — will feature traffic light ratings alongside food items.

The ratings run from ‘A’, which indicates a very low carbon impact, to E, which indicates a very high carbon impact.

For example, on the Smoque Burger menu, Smoque’s vegan burger, which features a Moving Mountains vegetable patty, lettuce, red onions, pickles, homemade vegan burger sauce, and a fresh seed vegan bun, is rated A.

The restaurant’s beef burger, on the other hand, has received an E rating, thanks to the inclusion of a beef patty.

Sepand Sarmadi, owner of Smoque Burger, said: “More and more of our customers are becoming aware of the environmental impact of the food industry, and many want to make more climate-conscious food choices.

“We are very pleased to be involved in this project to learn more about the carbon impact of our food and to understand customer preferences.”

Just Eat hopes the new labels will help customers better understand the environmental impact of their food choices.

“We are committed to building a more sustainable future for the food delivery industry,” Ms Rabadia added.

It remains unclear when or if Just Eat plans to roll out the trial outside of Brighton.

This isn’t the first time Just Eat has shown off its green credentials.

Last year, Just Eat and UEFA launched ‘pioneering’ biodegradable food packaging during the Women’s EURO final as part of their drive to tackle plastic pollution.

Lined with seaweed and fully recyclable, the boxes decomposed into home compost in four weeks, according to Notpla, who Just Eat worked with on the project.

“A typical takeaway box has synthetic additives added directly to the pulp, making it impossible to decompose,” Notpla’s website explains.

‘During the composting process we see that while the plate breaks down, the coating itself remains completely unchanged.’

WHAT CAN FOOD PACKAGING LOOK LIKE IN THE FUTURE?

Eco labels that tell you the environmental impact of the product.
Calorie Burn Equivalents that tell you how much exercise you will need to do to burn off the food.
No expiration datebecause they promote throwing food away before it spoils.
Spoilage sensors included in the package that you can scan with your smartphone to see if it is defective.
Biodegradable coating sprayed on fresh fruit and vegetables to keep it fresh without the use of plastic.
Bins made of grass as an alternative to plastic.
Bottles made of wood or paper so they can biodegrade much faster than glass or plastic.
Biodegradable polymer films made from soybean oil that has the power of spider silk.