We’re incredibly proud of Foodprint, our brand new, fully automated, easy-to-use carbon footprint scoring, display and scope 3 reporting system for food businesses.
On Wednesday, June 22nd, we were thrilled to mark its official launch with an interactive webinar, ‘Your Foodprint – Carbon Tracking Made Simple’. We hope you found it useful and informative.
If you missed it, don’t worry – you can watch the full recording below.
The webinar was hosted by Clare Stead, Business Development Director UK & IRE for Nutritics. The panel included Damian O’Kelly, Nutritics CEO; Elbha Purcell, Director of Knowledge Labs; and Dr Laura Kirwan, Sustainability Lead Coordinator.
Foodprint automatically calculates your carbon footprint score per dish in line with the most advanced research, helping your food business and customers make more informed and environmentally conscious choices.
In this live session, our panel discussed the importance of tracking and reporting scope 3 emissions, and why this is of particular concern for the hospitality and foodservice industry. We explained the methodology behind Foodprint and the details of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) we’ve used, and highlighted the numerous ways in which food businesses can reap the benefits of this fully automated system.
Before the panel opened up to the audience for questions, Damian also played a demo video showing exactly how Foodprint works in practice.
There were plenty of interested queries about Foodprint. Read on for the answers to all your burning questions…
1. Has Nutritics liaised with any regulatory bodies in developing the Footprint logos and labels?
Yes! We have reached out to the FSAI in Ireland, and are looking at aligning with similar regulatory bodies in the UK and further afield. The Framework for Sustainable Food Systems (FSFS) is currently under consultation, so we will also be watching this closely. We’ve built Foodprint to be progressive and adaptable, so that any future legislation or best practice guidelines will be integrated into the software straight away.
2. Is it possible to see the score for a dish or recipe as opposed to solely for individual ingredients?
Yes, absolutely — you’ll be able to view the score at the recipe level and per portion. You’ll also get an overall score for your entire menu or production run.
3. I own a burger restaurant — why would I want to include this score, as all of my dishes will be marked in red?
Consumers are increasingly looking for greater transparency. If someone is going to a burger joint, they’re going to eat a burger, but giving them this information allows them to make an educated choice and perhaps choose a more sustainable burger option from your menu. It’s a win-win: your customers won’t lose out, and neither will your business.
4. What is the best approach for restaurants that import many of their ingredients from various countries?
The country of origin information is now a mandatory field in Nutritics, and this feeds into the matching system. Multiple countries of origin can be set, and the carbon values will be weighted according to distribution, or the country of origin can be changed based on seasonal purchasing.
5. Is there a time lag?
No, the system is automatic and instant — carbon, water, nutritional and allergen calculations are all done instantaneously, and updated on your menus and labels in real-time. When a supplier publishes a new version of a product, you can ‘opt-in’ to use this SKU once all stock you have ‘in-hand’ has been used, then all of your recipes and labels will be updated automatically.
6. Is there a supplier list that has already been signed up to Foodprint and is it updated regularly?
Yes, Nutritics works with over 3,000 suppliers in the UK (and thousands more globally), and most update their food specifications at least weekly, if not daily. Country of origin has been added as a data point since March 2022, so a lot of the information for Foodprint is already being passed through from suppliers.
7. Is there an API which can link your system to our current stock/menu system?
Yes — Nutritics maintains a REST API to send and receive food, recipe and cost information. The API is included on our Enterprise plans.
8. Does the system track food waste as well?
Yes, food waste linked to production and unserved is already estimated and reputed in the Nutritics system from a cost perspective. We are developing this functionality further to be applicable to planetary health by capturing spoilage and plate waste along with the destination of the waste.
9. What kind of reports would my food business get from Foodprint?
Foodprint will have a dashboard where emissions and food waste can be tracked over time and trends identified. The reporting outputs will be aligned with all legislation and best practice in this area — for example, the WRAP protocol on scope 3 emissions and corporate sustainability reporting directive (CSRD), for which draft reporting criteria are under consultation.
10. Do you have any major suppliers on board?
Yes, Nutritics hosts data for over 3,000 UK suppliers (over 9,000 globally), including Brakes, Bidfood, Sysco, Fresh Direct, Booker and many more. Nutritics will engage with your suppliers and provide onboarding and training as part of our service.
11. Who checks the suppliers and ensures the information is up-to-date?
Nutritics run over 30 automated quality assurance checks on all data coming into the system. Data outside the expected ranges for the food, or with an allergen mismatch, will trigger a help wizard to ensure that data can be submitted accurately. Our data team also works with suppliers to ensure accurate data can be submitted in good time.
12. We are not using Nutritics yet — do my foods have to be in the Nutritics menu management system to get Foodprint?
Companies that are already set up in the Nutritics system are being prioritised, but the system will be available for use with other menu management systems at a later stage of development.