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High-street chain Itsu is slashing the price of its vegan meatballs to reflect the carbon emissions saved by eating plant-based.
In celebration of National Meatball Day, March 9, the chain will implement a 50 percent price reduction on its meatless’ meatballs rice bowl.
Itsu’s vegan meatballs
The dish is served on a bed of whole-grain brown rice and seasonal greens, drizzled with sticky teriyaki sauce and spicy ssamjang. It also features The Meatless Farm Company’s plant-based meatballs.
Julian Metcalfe is the founder of Itsu. In a statement sent to PBN, he said: “We have a commitment to having a positive impact on the environment and want to make it easy for our customers to make positive choices too.
“With 50 percent off on National Meatball Day, we want to encourage Brits to eat less meat and do good for the planet, all whilst enjoying a delicious bowl of meatless’ meatballs. What’s not to like?”
Beef tax
Moreover, Itsu is not the first chain to alter its prices to reflect the environmental impact of food. Earlier this year, Pieminister trialed a ‘beef tax’ to ‘highlight the climate impact of different ingredients’.
Throughout January, the chain added a 10p supplement to the price of four of its pies containing beef. The supplement was used to purchase and plant trees as part of Pieminister’s campaign with Forestry England.
Jon Simon is the co-founder and MD of Pieminister. In a statement sent to PBN, he said: “Food production counts for 25 percent of the world’s carbon emissions… Beef consumption is a huge part of the problem.
“As pie makers, we have a responsibility to do something about this. We’re not telling people they should not eat our beef pies – we’re saying that we should all acknowledge the impact beef has on the planet and give our customers good reason to try a non-beef alternative once in a while.
“It’s a bold move but we hope our ‘planet payback’ supplement will help with this while kicking off the fundraising for our forthcoming tree planting campaign with Forestry England.”
