From the UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER and the “I’m going to have a sandwich for lunch, just for spite” department comes this exercise in climate stupidity equating sandwich types to miles driven in a car. So for extra spite, I’m going to drive my car to the nearest Subway sandwich shop today and order a foot-long, with double meat. Like this one.
For the rest of you that embrace this guilt building exercise, have a Tofu on Rye.
When will they learn you can’t motivate people by trying to make them feel guilty about everyday foods? I do predict though, at some point, just like they require for cars, California will require foods top have a “global warming impact” sticker in the not too distant future as a way of taxing those “carbon footprints”.
Is your sandwich bad for the environment?
Do you take a packed lunch to work or buy a sandwich from the shop? The carbon footprint of your sandwich could be having a major impact on greenhouse gas emissions according to new research.
Researchers at The University of Manchester have carried out the first ever study looking at the carbon footprint of sandwiches, both home-made and pre-packaged. They considered the whole life cycle of sandwiches, including the production of ingredients, sandwiches and their packaging, as well as food waste discarded at home and elsewhere in the supply chain.
Altogether the team looked at 40 different sandwich types, recipes and combinations. They found the highest carbon footprints for the sandwiches with pork meat (bacon, ham or sausages) and those containing cheese or prawns.
Of the recipes considered, the most carbon-intensive variety is a ready-made ‘all-day breakfast’ sandwich which includes egg, bacon and sausage.
The researchers estimate that this type of sandwich generates 1441 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq.). This is equivalent to CO2 emissions from driving a car for 12 miles.
The sandwich with the lowest carbon emission equivalent is a simple home-made favourite, ham and cheese. The study also found that making your own sandwiches at home could reduce carbon emissions by a half compared to ready-made equivalents.
According to the British Sandwich Association (BSA) more than 11.5 billion sandwiches are consumed each year in the UK alone. Around half of those are made at home and the other half are bought over the counter in shops, supermarkets and service stations around the country. That means the UK spends nearly £8 billion a year on the breaded snack, at an average cost of £2 per snack.
Professor Adisa Azapagic, from the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences, said:
‘Given that sandwiches are a staple of the British diet as well as their significant market share in the food sector, it is important to understand the contribution from this sector to the emissions of greenhouse gases.
‘For example, consuming 11.5 billion sandwiches annually in the UK generates, on average, 9.5 million tonnes of CO2 eq., equivalent to the annual use of 8.6 million cars.’
The results show the largest contributor to a sandwich’s carbon footprint is the agricultural production and processing of their ingredients. Depending on the type, this can account for around 37%-67% of CO2 eq. for ready-made sandwiches.
Keeping sandwiches chilled in supermarkets and shops also contributes to their carbon footprint. This can account for up to a quarter of their greenhouse gas emission equivalent. Then there is the packaging material which comes in at up to 8.5 % and, finally, transporting materials and refrigerating sandwiches themselves adds a further 4%.
The study concludes that the carbon footprint of the snacks could be reduced by as much as 50 per cent if a combination of changes were made to the recipes, packaging and waste disposal. The researchers also suggest extending sell-by and use-by dates to reduce waste.
Professor Azapagic, who also heads up the Sustainable Industrial Systems research group, added: ‘We need to change the labelling of food to increase the use-by date as these are usually quite conservative. Commercial sandwiches undergo rigorous shelf-life testing and are normally safe for consumption beyond the use-by date stated on the label.’
The BSA also estimate that extending the shelf life of sandwiches by relaxing such dates would help save at least 2000 tonnes of sandwich waste annually.
The study also recommends reducing or omitting certain ingredients that have a higher carbon footprint, like lettuce, tomato, cheese and meat. Reducing ingredients, such as cheese and meat, would also reduce the amount of calories eaten, contributing towards healthier lifestyles.
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Reference: The paper, Understanding the impact on climate change of convenience food: Carbon footprint of sandwiches by Namy Espinoza-Orias, Adisa Azapagic; Sustainable Industrial Systems, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences, The University of Manchester was published in the Journal of Sustainable Production and Consumption https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2017.12.002
Could anything be more ridiculous? Well,,,,,, yes.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/california-bill-would-criminalize-restau
Okay, if I have to drink out of a vessel (of any kind) that someone else used and I can’t have a straw without demanding it, and I get sick with some exotic, horrific brain-eating disease that causes constant runny nose syndrome, I will blame it on Ian Calderon and I will sue the pants off him in an ugly, long-drawn-out public battle. I will also sneeze violently in his general direction.
I have said it. Thus it shall be.
The Global Warming Sandwich – Full of Baloney
The Climate Change sandwich
If i starve myself, will I get enough carbon credits to become a multi-millionaire?
Here’s a relevant thread from 2011:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/16/ill-never-be-able-to-eat-kobe-beef-again/
It’s still hilarious the second time around.
Anthony, maybe you can get Kenji a membership in the “British Sandwich Association” too?
I’ve always suspected that Big Sandwich and the Coke Brothers were up to something.
Stories like this one and alarmist rubbish from their climate scientist friends who regularly contribute to the “It’s worse than I thought Department” make me wonder how these people perform on a sort of “terminal Stupidity” index but after exhaustive studies, I realise that stupidity is a dimensionless property that knows no bounds. True stupidity really is infinite in its reach. However, take note that climate change may have an unfair advantage by boosting normal human stupidity by the use of computer models capable of achieving unimaginable stupidity if run on mainframes.
Collect the statistics on terminal stupidity and report them here.
I’d like to know just how far it goes.
When I first started in programming I had to settle for a dumb terminal.
‘”Given that sandwiches are a staple of the British diet as well as their significant market share in the food sector, it is important to understand the contribution from this sector to the emissions of greenhouse gases.
‘For example, consuming 11.5 billion sandwiches annually in the UK generates, on average, 9.5 million tonnes of CO2 eq., equivalent to the annual use of 8.6 million cars.”
So consuming fish and chips 11.5 billions times instead will generate how much tonnes of CO2 ?
Nobody on the planet will ever feel guilty about eating food to survive on the planet Earth. All the food chain relies on CO2 and therefore it is essential for life. Why don’t you do us all a favor and stop eating food for ever because there is no where to avoid it by living.
Unbelivable!
https://youtu.be/m4j5wuhFZ_Y?t=1
I’ll just have to up my sandwich uptake – after I’ve thrown a few more carbon-emitting logs on the fire, logs produced by my carbon-emitting chain-saw.
This paper would clearly be suitable for publication in The Onion. I found quite an entertaining satire. I really laughed at this part:
“The study also recommends reducing or omitting certain ingredients that have a higher carbon footprint, like lettuce, tomato, cheese and meat.”
I’d be left with two slices of bread with some mayo. LoL.
#SandwichesMatterMost!
#Stop Insulting Sandwiches!
I may pay a visit to Subway myself and get the footlong BMT Italian and some chips.
I just want to know if any of these geniuses are going to give up eating food and eat recycled carcboard instead. I hear it’s good with ketchup and a little Tabasco.
Many years ago, early nutrition scientists feedin corn flakes to rats were surprised to discover that they turned up their toes and died. Not enough nutrients, you see. The surprising part is that the rats that were fed the boxes the cornflakes came in, survived.
I’m confused.
To save the planet, should I have a hot dog without the bun or a bun without the hot dog?
No. You do it following these steps.
1 – Find out who these bozos are and where they inhabit a spot at a unversity or college.
2 – Visit the campus and the building where they work, with a large picnic basket full of really good things that smell wonderful, say a fragrant Italian beef with or without peppers, or a Philly cheeseteak w/fries, or a thin-sliced smoked ham with a high perfume and a lot of flavor, coupled with lettuce, tomatoes and your choice of sides (chips?).
3 – Include a quart of unflavored tofu, some plastic bowls and a couple of spoons.
4 – Invite them to enjoy lunch with your, but you eat the real food and they get the tofu. And only water to drink for them.
5 – Indicate that you will do this every day until they leave their world of fantasy (university) and find real jobs asking people “would you like fries or onion rings with that?” at a Renaissance Faire.
I don’t have the time to do all those steps but, if someone else does, may I suggest that instead of plastic bowls and spoons they should be hand-carved wooden or sun-baked clay bowls and spoons?
I like their suggestion that use-by and sell-by dates be extended or not taken literally.
BTW, I’ve read that “food waste” statistics are inflated by counting rinds and such matter—and even packaging—as waste. And by guilt-tripping the consume for things that aren’t his fault, such as by counting supermarket discards of ugly veggies and post-harvest mold and rodent damage.
Their suggestion is a disgrace because use by dates are there for safety reasons. Food poisoning risk increases greatly eating after a use by date. Best before though are all about quality of product and will not harm.
https://www.food.gov.uk/science/microbiology/use-by-and-best-before-dates
“The ‘use by’ date is a really important one to take note of: after this date, the food may not be safe to eat. Foods that can cause harm when they go ‘off’ will be labelled with a use-by date.”
I found a little pot of tomato paste in my fridge yesterday.. “Best by 1.5.2012”
Now we are talking FLAVOUR in a spag bol. !! 🙂
ps.. Actually, I tossed it in the bin.. very wasteful of me, I know.
Oh, don’t feel bad, AndyG55. I found a jar of pasta sauce in the cupboard that is now 6 months past its expiration date. But since the tomato-based stuff I’m buying now is being extended to 3 years instead of 2, I’m thinking I can nuke the bugs (if any) in the microwave and still have some pasta sauce… or I canjust toss it and make the sauce from scratch.
Here’s yer basic pasta sauce recipe: tomatoes; olive oi; garlic; salt. Simmer the tomatoes (canned are okay) and smush them a lot, on a very low heat, with the olive oil salt and garlic added at the start. Get this mix smushed to a paste, add a little more tomato and keep stirring so it won’t burn, then taste test it. You can also use a bain-marie to cook it to keep the tomatoes from burning. A small batch is better than wasting half a jar of commercial sauce.
After a certain length of time after the best before date, the quality of the product mainly becomes poor, so usually not worth eating or risking anyway.
Considering that the authors seem to be talking primarily about fresh food (i.e., produce, ready-made sandwiches, etc.), such a suggestion is alarming. Yes, many of these dates are conservative, but that is to decrease the chances that someone will get sick or worse. How many of us have had milk go sour or meat go “off” before the expiration/sell-by date? It happens even with precautions.
I am all for reducing food waste, and I will eat processed foods after the sell/use/best by dates, but only to a point, and the dates definitely matter more for some foods than others. I would never eat a “fresh” pre-made sandwich that was made days before.
Someone requested and was given a grant for this.
Which is stupider? Hard to say.
I’m sorry – these are the big brains these days?
Oh well, this’ll just make my plot to destroy the world all the easier. I’ll just pack a lunch.
In 100,000 years, alien archeologists will determine that the foolish species went extinct because they ate too many concoctions consisting of protein and fiber layered between two carbohydrate sheets.
And insisting that male and female spend less time between the sheets. To save the planet.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds – An entire new volume could be written about the climate cult.
Leaving a sandwich with meat in it at room temperature for too long can make it poisonous. A great way to get food poisoning. So if you want to avoid that, you should refrigerate it yourself anyway!
Choose: CO2 or food poisoning. (Hint, we chose CO2 many decades ago because food poisoning sucks.)
Send more money and we’ll find ways to spend it.
This reminded me of the Blues Brothers song Rubber Biscuit.
“Have you ever heard of a wish sandwich? A wish sandwich is the kind of a
sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you, hee hee hee, wish you
had some meat…
Bow bow bow.”
“The study also recommends reducing or omitting certain ingredients that have a higher carbon footprint, like lettuce, tomato, cheese and meat.”
So you can have a BLT so long as you don’t have any B, L or T.
Maybe this team have pointed themselves in a rather silly direction by linking the production of some street foods to climate change, but underneath their research there is a serious topic .
When I first started living in London as a student in the 60s the main line stations had no eating facilities apart from crisps’ dispensers and maybe a bar that no sane person would enter , being full of Millwall or QPR football fans.
Now when I pass through termini such as Paddington or Victoria I am overwhelmed by the smell and sight of innumerable burger sellers, baguette stall and coffee outlets .No matter what the hour or the footfall through the concourse these places are full of food . It cannot all be eaten in a day . To reheat it would be dangerous and illegal and the bread will stale and become unsaleable .
So what happens to it? Landfill, incineration? There is a carbon footprint , but there is surely also enormous waste which some might find slightly offensive when many people inside and outside our country are undernourished. Mind you it does not stop me enjoying these facilities when I need them so I am no doubt a hypocrite.
I once read that the sandwiches at, I think ,one outlet in Manchester airport were not prepared here but prepared and flown in from New York where the labour was so much cheaper. Now there is a carbon footprint. .
Could some body pass the mustard?
Spicy brown, Dijon, or full seeded?
I like the Dijon myself, but I wouldn’t say “no” to the other two. As a bachelor I had more containers of different mustards in the fridge than all other items combined.
LOL. Which kills the fewest polar bear cubs.
Lets just cut to the chase & get to the underlying premise on all of this – people are bad & the world would be such a better place without us & all our “carbon emissions “
Moronic .
Written from my favorite sandwich shop…
The decline of western science is a slippery slope paved with mayo.
There aren’t enough beautiful people to cause any problem eating sandwiches, it’s from too many of those “other” people eating them.
When I read the findings of studies like these, I wonder how anyone can justify wasting tax money on something that simply says ‘in your face’ with no solution to the perceived problem.
The people who cooked up this nonsense presented a “problem” that does not really exist to justify their grant request, done in a way that any bright teen with an agile mind could dismantle in the blink of an eye.
Presenting this as a problem requires a solution, which they did not propose at all. Therefore, their entire piece of work is totally bogus, man!!!!
I wonder what the Earl of Sandwich would think of this paper