Sysco launches innovative carbon labelling system for foodservice

Sysco GB has partnered with foodservice technology specialist Nutritics to introduce a carbon labelling system for UK food businesses.

Foodprint is a fully automated environmental impact scoring system for the hospitality and foodservice sector, allows customers to track, manage and publish the water and carbon impact of their menus.

The solution, which will become part of Brakes’ Virtual Chef concept, is described as putting sustainability at the heart of recipe development by bringing carbon and water data together with nutritional, allergen and margin information.

With food contributing almost a third of all global carbon emissions, the new tool will allow Brakes to support customers to quantify the impact of their menus by delivering product-level carbon data, according to the company.

This can be used to ”develop more sustainable menus, and shared with an increasingly engaged consumer audience, empowering them to make choices based on the impact of a particular dish”, Sysco explained.

Easily understandable data 

Foodprint works by taking the most reliable data available across agriculture, processing, packaging and transportation, linked back to peer-reviewed academic research. It delivers this in an understandable format that can easily be translated into a consumer-friendly label.

Pete Statham, head of sustainability and government relations at Sysco GB, said: “Over 90 per cent of our carbon footprint is the food that we sell, so educating our team and supporting customers on the design and development of menus and the products they are sourcing is vital to us playing our part in tackling climate change.

“With thousands of customers and the industry’s largest development chef team, we are very excited about the opportunity to build on Sysco’s global science-based targets and be at the forefront of transforming the food system and what ends up on the menus of tomorrow.”

Educating colleagues

Sysco recently worked with Knowledge Labs from Nutritics, a specialist sustainability consultancy service, to create and deliver a programme to educate all its 8,000 colleagues in sustainability.

That included bringing together the development chef team to test the new Nutritics system, demonstrating how it can be used to help support customers in understanding and managing the environmental impact of the food they buy and ultimately cutting the impact of their menus.

Stephen Nolan, CEO of Nutritics, said: “Fresh from helping the organisers of COP28 deliver climate-friendly menus across the conference, this is another opportunity for us to provide food sustainability experience that helps hospitality businesses. We’re proud to work alongside Sysco GB, creating a path towards shared goals and becoming part of its sustainability journey.

“By becoming part of Brakes’ Virtual Chef concept, we’re able to support the company in its broader mission to reduce emissions and educate customers on the impact of culinary decisions on the environment, creating a greener future.”