LIFE Climate Smart Chefs: creating food that’s healthy for the planet

Over the centuries Europe's chefs have turned food into an art form, but what people eat also has a huge impact on the environment. To address this, the LIFE Climate Smart Chefs project is combining the culinary skills of Europe’s best chefs with the latest knowledge on sustainable cooking to promote a food system that is healthier for the planet.

The food system is currently a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 31% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. It also drives biodiversity loss, excessive water use and is a major source of pollution from fertilisers and pesticides. 

Reducing the environmental impact of food is a key challenge facing governments and companies, while still ensuring people get the nutrition they need.

‘Chefs are key actors in this process [to reduce the environmental impact of food],’ says Alessandra Varotto, communications manager for the Barilla Foundation, which is coordinating the Climate Smart Chefs project. ‘For this reason, over the past three years the Climate Smart Chefs project has been at the forefront of educating chefs across Europe focusing on the fundamental relationship among food, health and the environment.’

The project has provided 164 chefs from all 27 EU countries with training and resources to transform their recipes and create menus in more sustainable ways. The chefs who took part were able to reduce the carbon and water footprint of their recipes by around 30%, according to Varotto. 

Chefs who have completed the training were then also able to enter a new award aimed at recognising those who have achieved significant improvements in sustainability in their kitchens. The award has two categories - Best Sustainable Restaurant and Best Sustainable Recipe. The winners are due to be announced in December 2024 at a final conference for the project, which is being held in Milan, Italy.

Some of the chefs are also taking part in the Zero Waste, More Taste campaign, contributing to a new cookbook aimed at reducing food waste by using scraps to create tasty dishes.

The project partners - from Italy, Ireland and Finland - have also produced a digital menu management tool that incorporates carbon and water footprint data gathered by an earlier project, Su-Eatable LIFE. This software, called Foodprint, allows chefs to see the environmental impact of their recipes as a traffic light system, and gives them options to make adjustments so the food is more sustainable. Surveys of chefs and research conducted for the project also led to a series of recommendations and best practices for restaurants hoping to improve their sustainability.

A long-term roadmap, called Vision 2030, was created to help the hospitality industry work with governments to deliver the policies needed to transform the food system.

The LIFE Climate Smart Chefs project contributes to the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy under the European Green Deal and the Energy Efficiency Directive.