TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring spatio-temporal variations in environmental impacts from eating out in the United Kingdom

AU - Ali, M.

AU - Liu, L.

AU - Zhang, J.

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Physics Reports. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Science of the Total Environment, 808, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149540

PY - 2021/12/20

Y1 - 2021/12/20

N2 - In this study we estimated the environmental burden of eating away from home based on emission factors of food recipes consumed in different regions and countries within the United Kingdom. Food based emissions were expressed in kg CO2 equivalent per capita per week and were calculated based on food consumption data between the years 2001 and 2018. Time series analysis was used to estimate emissions for the years 2019 and 2020 for all study areas. These results were used to estimate the endpoint impacts on human health as well as terrestrial and aquatic species during the study period. Finally, an estimate of the emissions for 2020 was also carried out based on available market data for the first 11 months of the year. This was subsequently compared with the forecasts calculated earlier to observe the impacts of Covid-19 led lockdowns on eating out and hence the emissions. By taking a subnational approach, we aimed to highlight the importance of appreciating similarities and differences among these regions and policy implications thereof. To the best knowledge of the authors this is the first and only study focusing on regional food-based emissions from eating out in the United Kingdom.

AB - In this study we estimated the environmental burden of eating away from home based on emission factors of food recipes consumed in different regions and countries within the United Kingdom. Food based emissions were expressed in kg CO2 equivalent per capita per week and were calculated based on food consumption data between the years 2001 and 2018. Time series analysis was used to estimate emissions for the years 2019 and 2020 for all study areas. These results were used to estimate the endpoint impacts on human health as well as terrestrial and aquatic species during the study period. Finally, an estimate of the emissions for 2020 was also carried out based on available market data for the first 11 months of the year. This was subsequently compared with the forecasts calculated earlier to observe the impacts of Covid-19 led lockdowns on eating out and hence the emissions. By taking a subnational approach, we aimed to highlight the importance of appreciating similarities and differences among these regions and policy implications thereof. To the best knowledge of the authors this is the first and only study focusing on regional food-based emissions from eating out in the United Kingdom.

KW - Covid-19

KW - Eating out

KW - Emissions

KW - Food

KW - Impact assessment

KW - Food supply

KW - Particulate emissions

KW - Public policy

KW - Emission

KW - Emission factors

KW - Environmental burdens

KW - Home-based

KW - Impact assessments

KW - Per capita

KW - Spatio-temporal variation

KW - United kingdom

KW - Time series analysis

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149540

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149540

M3 - Journal article

VL - 801

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

M1 - 149540

ER -