Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Maternal and pediatric nutrition

Contribution of healthy and unhealthy primary school meals to greenhouse gas emissions in England: linking nutritional data and greenhouse gas emission data of diets

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 70, pages 1162–1167 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

School meals represent the largest sector in Government food procurement in the United Kingdom. This paper aims to quantify, simultaneously, the nutritional quality and carbon footprint of meals provided by primary schools in England.

Subjects/Methods:

The School Food Trust conducted the ‘Primary School Food Survey 2009’ in a nationally representative sample of 139 primary schools in England. The survey included 6690 students who consumed school lunches and 3488 students who brought packed lunches. We estimated the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) per Kg of the food items contributing to those lunches based on the results of a systematic review of life-cycle analyses.

Results:

In both school lunches and packed lunches, the ‘meat, fish and alternatives’ group contributed the largest share of GHGEs. The mean GHGE value per school lunch was estimated to be 0.72 (95% uncertainty interval 0.52–1.34) KgCO2e and per packed lunch was 0.70 (0.58–0.94) KgCO2e. The total GHGE due to primary school meals in England per year is 578.1 million KgCO2e (455–892 million).

Conclusions:

If all children achieved a healthy meal defined by having a low level of salt, free sugars and saturated fat, the total GHGEs from primary school meals would be 441.2 million KgCO2e (384–1192), saving 136.9 million KgCO2e compared with the current total emissions from primary school meals. This paper demonstrates that changes in the primary school food sector can have an impact on UK GHGEs.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1

References

  1. WHO. Climate Change and Health. World Health Organization: Genava, 2014 (cited 2015 May). Available from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/.

  2. Wheeler T, von Braun J . Climate change impacts on global food security. Science 2013; 341: 508–513.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Haines A, McMichael AJ, Smith KR, Roberts I, Woodcock J, Markandya A et al. Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: overview and implications for policy makers. Lancet 2009; 374: 2104–2114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Haines A, Kovats RS, Campbell-Lendrum D, Corvalan C . Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability and public health. Public Health 2006; 120: 585–596.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Haines A, Kovats RS, Campbell-Lendrum D, Corvalan C . Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability, and mitigation. Lancet 2006; 367: 2101–2109.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. UK Government. Climate Change Act, 2008. The National Archives: London, UK, 2008.

  7. European Commission. Environmental Impact of Products (EIPRO): Analysis of the LIfe Cycle Environmental Impacts Related to the Total Final Consumption of the EU25. European Commission Technical Report EUR 22284 EN European Commission - Joint Research Centre: Spain, 2006.

  8. Scarborough P, Appleby PN, Mizdrak A, Briggs AD, Travis RC, Bradbury KE et al. Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Clim Change 2014; 125: 179–192.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Hallstrom E, Carlsson-Kanyama A, Borjesson P . Environmental impact of dietary change: a systematic review. J Clean Prod 2015; 91: 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Millward DJ, Garnett T . Food and the planet: nutritional dilemmas of greenhouse gas emission reductions through reduced intakes of meat and dairy foods. Proc Nutr Soc 2010; 69: 103–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Joyce A, Hallett J, Hannelly T, Carey G . The impact of nutritional choices on global warming and policy implications: examining the link between dietary choices and greenhouse gas emissions. Energy Emission Control Technol 2014; 2: 33–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. UK Government. Food 2030. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: London, UK, 2010.

  13. Bonfield P . . A Plan for Public Procurement. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: London, UK, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Dimbleby H, Vincent J . . School Food Plan. The Independent School Food Plan: London, UK, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  15. DfE. Universal Infant Free School Meals. Department for Education: London, UK, 2014.

  16. Haroun D, Harper C, Pearce J, Wood L, Nelson M . Primary School Food Survey 2009. School Food Trust 2012.

  17. Rogers IS, Ness AR, Hebditch K, Jones LR, Emmett PM . Quality of food eaten in English primary schools: school dinners vs packed lunches. Eur J Clin Nutr 2007; 61: 856–864.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. SFT. Primary school food survey 2009 Full Technical Report. The Children’s Food Trust: Sheffield, UK, 2010.

  19. FSA NDNS Nutrient Databank Version 1.32.0. Food Standards Agency: London, UK, 2002.

  20. Wickramasinghe KK . Quantifying the Impact of Policies Addressing Sustainable and Healthy Diets. University of Oxford: Oxford, UK, 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  21. EPIC-Oxford. European Prospective Investigation of Cancer Oxford 1992. Available from http://www.epic-oxford.org/files/epic-baseline-PQ.pdf.

  22. FSA McCance and Widdowson's the Composition of Foods: Summary Edition, 6th edn. Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge, UK, 2002.

  23. Public Health England. Your Guide to Eatwell Plate. Public Health England: London, UK, 2014.

  24. Gatenby SJ, Hunt P, Rayner M . The National Food Guide: development of dietetic criteria and nutritional characteristics. J Hum Nutr Diet 1995; 8: 323–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. WHO Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. World Health Organization: Geneva, Switzerland, 2003.

  26. Wilson N, Nghiem N, Mhurchu CN, Eyles H, Baker MG, Blakely T . Foods and dietary patterns that are healthy, low-cost, and environmentally sustainable: a case study of optimization modeling for New Zealand. PLos One 2013; 8: e59648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kroese DP, Bereton T, Taimre T, Botev Z . Why the Monte Carlo method is so important today. WIREs Comp Stat 2014; 6: 386–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. CF. Carbon Footprint Calculator 2014 (cited 19 2014 May). Available from http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx.

  29. PHE Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services Checklist. Public Health England: London, UK, 2014.

  30. Schösler H . . Healthy and Sustainable Food Choices Among Native and Migrant Citizens of the Netherlands. Institute of Environmental Studies, VU University: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Audsley E, Brander M, Chatterton J, Murphy-Bokern D, Webster C, Williams A . How low can we go? An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from the UK food system and the scope to reduce them by 2050. WWF-UK 2009.

  32. CCC The Fourth Carbon Budget Reducing Emissions Through the 2020 s. Committee on Climate Change (CCC): London, UK, 2010.

  33. Scarborough P, Appleby PN, Mizdrak A, Briggs A, Travis R, Bradbury KE et al. Dietary greenhouse gas emissions of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Climate Change 2014; 125: 179–192.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Garnett T . Where are the best opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food system (including the food chain)? Food Policy 2011; 36: S23–S32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Wilson N, Nghiem N, Ni Mhurchu C, Eyles H, Baker MG, Blakely T . Foods and dietary patterns that are healthy, low-cost, and environmentally sustainable: a case study of optimization modeling for New Zealand. PLoS One 2013; 8: e59648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Vieux F, Darmon N, Touazi D, Soler LG . Greenhouse gas emissions of self-selected individual diets in France: changing the diet structure or consuming less? Ecol Econ 2012; 75: 91–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vieux F, Soler LG, Touazi D, Darmon N . High nutritional quality is not associated with low greenhouse gas emissions in self-selected diets of French adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2013; 97: 569–583.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Tom MS, Fischbeck PS, Hendrickson CT . Energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US. Environ Syst Decis 2016; 36: 92–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Horgan GW, Perrin A, Whybrow S, Macdiarmid JI . Achieving dietary recommendations and reducing greenhouse gas emissions: modelling diets to minimise the change from current intakes. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Activity 2016; 13: 46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Marshall S, Burrows T, Collins CE . Systematic review of diet quality indices and their associations with health-related outcomes in children and adolescents. J Hum Nutr Diet 2014; 27: 577–598.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Children’s Food Trust (formerly the School Food Trust) for making data available for this analysis. Kremlin Wickramasinghe and Nick Townsend are supported by a grant from the British Heart Foundation (006/P&C/CORE/2013/OXFSTATS). Mike Rayner and Peter Scarborough are supported by a programme grant from the British Heart Foundation (021/P&C/Core/2010/HPRG). Michael Goldacre was funded in part by Public Health England. The views expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding bodies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuffield Department of Population Health, British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    K K Wickramasinghe, M Rayner, N Townsend & P Scarborough

  2. Nuffield Department of Population Health, Unit of Health Care Epidemiology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    M Goldacre

Authors
  1. K K Wickramasinghe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M Rayner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M Goldacre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. N Townsend
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. P Scarborough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K K Wickramasinghe.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on European Journal of Clinical Nutrition website

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wickramasinghe, K., Rayner, M., Goldacre, M. et al. Contribution of healthy and unhealthy primary school meals to greenhouse gas emissions in England: linking nutritional data and greenhouse gas emission data of diets. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 1162–1167 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.101

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.101

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links