This week’s web of worthy news weaves between a pizza giant’s poultry promise, eating less (street) meat, and the demographic bucking the less meat trend.
Domino’s has committed to source all its chicken meat from farms that meet the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC). “This pledge ensures that millions of chickens in its supply chain will experience significantly improved living conditions and represents a major stride forward in driving higher welfare standards across the fast-food industry in the UK and beyond,” said Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).
We wouldn’t bet your chicken shed on it. Early adopters had until the end of this year to meet their BCC commitments on bird welfare but most foodservice companies will fall far short of that.
Domino’s had a look at the commitment, also known as the European Chicken Commitment, in 2023. Having spent two years mulling over whether to plump for the promise, it’s finally gone for it, with a policy update reading: “Domino’s UK & Ireland is committed to ensuring that by 2032, all chicken meat supplied to all our restaurants in the UK will come from farms that meet the criteria outlined by the European Chicken Commitment to strengthen our standards for the welfare of broiler chickens.”
That’s six years and a bit from now. Is this now the line in the sand for newly committed food companies? Will all those that signed up five, six or seven years ago – and who will miss the 2026 deadline – start shifting their deadlines out too?
Staying with chickens, we move to research that looked at the ‘less’ part of the ‘less and better’ meat equation. The Danish scientists considered what we should ideally be eating to fulfil the nutritional needs of the entire global population without exceeding planetary boundaries. The answer: 255 grams per week – which is a little less than two chicken breasts. And that should only be poultry or pork, said lead research Caroline Gebara, from DTU, Technical University of Denmark. “Beef cannot be eaten in meaningful quantities without exceeding planetary boundaries,” the scientists said in their paper for Nature Food.
DTU’s team also warned that we had better act fast(er) on shifting diets: “The projection of fewer viable diets over time stresses a narrowing window for healthy and sustainable diets due to decreasing thresholds correlated with a growing population. This trend is probably an underestimate, as other factors will further restrict diet options,” they added.
In the UK the general direction of travel is positive: on average we bought 857g of meat a week in 2023, down from 1kg in 2000. That’s about one kebab. However, this needs to accelerate: another kebab or so of meat must be eschewed by 2040, according to the Climate Change Committee’s recent (seventh) carbon budget.
AHDB has pointed out that “many consumers” may already consume well below the 782g per week target. The levy body has called for a more nuanced approach, separating out processed and unprocessed meat for example. That would play into a less and better approach. Which AHDB also wants to see happen with plant-based options: “The sustainability of plant-based alternatives is often evaluated through short-term models that do not fully account for long-term land-use changes or impacts on soil health,” reads its (rather ambiguous) assessment of the CCC’s budget.
Some people are in fact eating more meat, not less. Indeed, research just published by Hubbub shows young men eat twice as much meat as any other group and are also “the least comfortable eating plant-based foods in public”, noted Hubbub CEO Alex Robinson on social media this week. “It’s a new trend with big implications,” he wrote.
Elsewhere in Footprint news this week we cover Nestlé’s new disclosure policy for healthy products, an alarming CCC report warning that the UK is not prepared for climate impacts, and why public financing is much-needed to help alt-protein companies scale:
· Food corporates urged to follow Nestlé’s lead on improved nutrition reporting. More.
· The UK is not prepared for climate change as risks to land and biodiversity rise. More.
· Public funding of alt-proteins increases, but (much) more is needed. More.
