How easy is it to make greener food choices?

One of the most impactful things to focus on when we’re looking to reduce our carbon footprint is the food we buy every week. I have another blog explaining this which you can take a look at here. Some foods have less of an environmental impact than others and so we can often swap an item for a similar, greener one to reduce our emissions without much effort on our part. But just how much effort is required, exactly? How easy or difficult is it to make these greener swaps (or, EcoTweaks!) In practice?

There are a few things to consider when answering this question:

1. Pre-purchase: How difficult is it to pick which items to swap out and which items to buy instead?

2. Purchase: How much extra work is it to source and buy the new item?

3. Usage: Do I have to change meal plans and recipes, or learn how to cook new things?

With all these things considered, we can try to estimate how much time and effort will go into making our food shops a little bit greener.

The decision

All items have a carbon impact, but as I detail in this blog, this carbon impact is difficult and costly to calculate, and can often be disputed. There are lots of different sources producing slightly different data and so in order to compare one food to another we need to compile these sources and remember all that data when we go shopping. In our EcoTweaks app, we have done this hard work for you and so you can use it to get instant, greener swap suggestions for any food you put on your shopping list, eliminating the time and effort that would be required to learn and memorise all that information yourself.

Decision difficulty WITHOUT EcoTweaks: Difficult

Decision difficulty WITH EcoTweaks: Very easy

Sourcing and purchasing the new item

While this is dependent on the item, generally speaking you will be swapping like-for-like items. For example, you’re likely to swap one meat for another, one fish for another, or one fruit for another. In all these examples, you’ll be buying the new item from exactly the same aisle (or page on the website!) as if you were buying the original item. No extra effort at all!

In some cases, the swaps might be slightly more involved. For example, you might fancy trying a vegetarian alternative to your meat (like tofu or lentils) which might take you to a different part of the supermarket. In other cases, you might be looking for an item you’ve never heard of (tempeh, anyone?). If you’re feeling adventurous and opting for these swaps, there is some guidance on where to find the new item on EcoTweaks if you’re using it. It’s also worth remembering that once you learn where the new item is, you’ll remember it forevermore!

Sourcing difficulty WITHOUT EcoTweaks: Quite easy

Sourcing difficulty WITH EcoTweaks: Easy

Meal planning and cooking the new item

In most cases, because we are swapping like-for-like, the new food will likely be used in a similar way to the original food. A more environmentally friendly cheese can probably be sliced and added to crackers in the exact same way; soya milk can be blended with bananas to make a milkshake just like dairy milk.

Sometimes, we’ll be swapping for an item that does need to be cooked differently, and that should be considered in meal planning. Cooking times might need to be adjusted to cook chicken all the way through, as opposed to lamb that can be served rare. Some vegetables are tastier roasted while others can be steamed. The highest level of difficulty will come if you opt to swap in an item that you’ve never cooked before and you need to learn something new. These can be the most exciting! A whole new world of recipes might be opened up and your culinary skills can expand and evolve, but that will come with a little bit of effort up front. On EcoTweaks, we have some pointers on how to cook items, as well as recipes they work well in. We also recommend exploring the food side of Instagram and TikTok for hundreds of amazing recipes you can understand in seconds.

Meal planning and cooking difficulty WITHOUT EcoTweaks: Moderate

Meal planning and cooking difficulty WITH EcoTweaks: Quite easy

What's stopping you?

Overall, making greener food choices is easy, and with EcoTweaks it is even easier. There’s a world of ingredients to experiment with and recipes to try, so why not inject some fun and variety into your meal planning while reducing your carbon footprint? It is absolutely worth a go!

Take a look at what greener alternatives you could buy in your weekly shop on EcoTweaks and get involved with our Discord community if you'd like even more inspiration from like-minded people using the app.