My Manchester Food Monthly

How would you like to share your favourite vegetarian recipe, have the chance to see your recipe grace the counters in student halls and Food on Campus outlets and help the environment all at the same time? 

If you have a vegetarian recipe that could make any carnivore’s mouth water then look out for further details of the upcoming competition.

Shortlisted recipes will be published in a recipe booklet and will be available online. Winners will have the chance to prepare their dish with The University of Manchester’s Executive Head Chef, and see their recipes become part of a new vegetarian menu being offered in student halls and food outlets across campus.

What should we eat if we don't eat meat?

The SCI hopes to increase awareness of vegetarian recipes, and foods which are lower in carbon, such as potatoes, carrots and beans in order to reduce the amount of carbon emissions.

Research with focus groups showed that people felt that they lacked a knowledge of meat-free meals, and believed that family members would be reluctant to eat meals without meat. SCI research revealed however, that men and women were much more willing to reduce their meat consumption than was previously realised (up to 20%), although they consistently asked “what should we eat, if we don’t eat meat?”

Meat Free Mondays are intended to get people thinking about the sustainability about the food they are eating and how they can change their habits to reduce carbon emissions.

This initiative follows a report published this summer, What’s Cooking?,which looked at the links between diet and climate change. 

UK food purchase data indicates that, with respect to dietary needs, consumers are buying too little bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and other starchy foods and too little fruit and vegetables, not only are not enough purchased, but fruit and vegetables are, together with bread, the food most likely to be wasted by households; overall 17% of food purchased is thrown away.

Meat currently makes up around 14% of the daily UK calorie intake. The consumption-based greenhouse gases associated with unprocessed meat consumption are 15% of ‘Food and Drink’ emissions, 29% of the emissions from ‘Processed Foods’ are also associated with meat. This elevates the percentage of ‘Food and Drink’ emissions linked to meat to 28%.