Lentils? No, but f ish suppers ARE on the Cop menu
DELEGATES at the Cop26 summit will enjoy meals including braised turkey meatballs and tempura vegetables as part of a low-carbon menu for the two-week conference.
Attendees will dine on largely plant-based options made from either 80 per cent Scottish or 95 per cent British produce.
The remaining items will be shipped instead of air freighted to reduce carbon emissions and are made up of items such as tea, coffee and spices unable to be grown in the UK.
Retail outlets in the Blue Zone will be serving up around 100,000 meals with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients.
Options include a vegan winter vegetable lasagne, or an organic spelt wholegrain penne pasta topped with a tomato ragu and pesto.
Classics such as fish and chips fried in Scottish rapeseed oil also appear, while a range of plant-based soups which generate only 0.1kg of carbon emissions will be available.
Even the beef burger, which tops CO2 emissions at 3.3kg, has been given a green makeover to use less meat and reduce its carbon footprint. Grants of Speyside beef will be mixed with root vegetables and oats and topped with cabbage, slaw and burger sauce. Using less meat means the dish’s carbon footprint has been reduced by around 1.8kg of CO2.
But for the super eco-conscious, the ‘Herbalism Burger’, a mushroom and onion-based patty topped with vegan tomato mayonnaise and salad, provides an even greener meal at only 0.2kg CO2 emissions.
Around 84kg of locally harvested Mara seaweed will be used to season dishes, while delegates are expected to get through 120,000 British apples and 25,000lb of Stoats Scottish porridge oats.
Ingredients will be replicated across the conference menus to minimise food waste, while drinks cups will be reusable, saving an estimated 250,000 single-use receptacles.
Cop26 president Alok Sharma said: ‘It is exciting to see such innovation in the menus that will be on offer and to understand the thought and effort that has gone into making dishes both healthy, sustainable and suitable for different diets.’