Garden Gourmet and Manchester City champion plant-based options for fans, as a step towards reducing carbon emissions

Garden Gourmet and Premier League Champions Manchester City will work together to promote plant-based eating across the Etihad Stadium, the Nestlé-owned brand has announced. Food is one of the main contributors to an individual's carbon footprint, and making a flex choice can have a positive impact. As a result, Manchester City plans to continue serving fans plant-based dishes as part of their match day catering offering, in line with their broader sustainability agenda.

Starting as a consumer trend, plant-based has gone mainstream with 92% of plant-based meals being eaten by non-vegans and 6 in 10 users now eat meat substitutes at least once a week. Global research shows that plant-based diets represent a major opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

During the 2021/22 season, Manchester City worked with Garden Gourmet on an online plant-based cook-along and flexible eating webinar for chefs and operators, highlighting the importance and positive impact of making meat alternatives available stadium-wide. Served in hospitality and most concessions, fans can choose from delicious meat alternatives using Garden Gourmet products, including the Vegan Sensational Burger, Vegan Chilli Loaded Fries, Vegan Chilli Pizza, Vegan Chilli Nachos and Vegan Fillet Sub Roll, all at similar prices to their meat equivalents. Everywhere where a meal option is offered in General Admission, Man City offer a vegan alternative alongside. Typically, matchday vegan sales average 10% of total product volume and rising.

"Manchester City is leading the charge, taking a progressive approach to player nutrition, while at the same time seeking out ways to encourage plant-based dining among fans during matchdays," commented Nestlé Professional's Head of Food, Lynn Little.

"Our Garden Gourmet products were a big hit at the stadium last season, and we are delighted with the response from fans. We're excited to continue working with Manchester City, helping them promote delicious flexitarian dining options as part of them achieving their sustainability targets."

The Garden Gourmet team wanted to look deeper to see what impact fans choosing plant-based options could have on carbon emissions. According to the Plate Up for the Planet Carbon Calculator, when inputting the ingredients of the Garden Gourmet 'Sensational' Burger consumed at Man City over the 2021/2022 season, this would be equivalent to just over 19,000kg CO2e saved when compared to beef equivalents typically consumed in the UK. This corresponds to just over 64,000 miles by car.

Figures were taken from sales of the Garden Gourmet Sensational Burger during the 2021/2022 season and calculating their CO2 emissions using the Vegan Society's 'Plate up for the Planet'. To ensure parity, CO2 emissions of their equivalent meat products were worked out using the same tool.