Our hospitality industry page covers who asks hotels, pubs and caterers for carbon figures and the full list of sources. This post zooms in on the two things that make a restaurant or cafe different: the food you buy and the gas you cook with.
The food you buy
Food and drink purchases are Scope 3 category 1, purchased goods. A PPN 006 Carbon Reduction Plan doesn't require them, but in our worked example below they are most of the total. The practical way in is your purchase ledger, using Defra's spend-based multipliers for each food group. The latest (2023) figures:
| What you buy | kg CO2e per £ |
|---|---|
| Meat and meat products | 0.71 |
| Dairy | 0.91 |
| Fresh fruit, vegetables and other farm produce | 1.98 |
| Other food: dry goods, sauces, bakery | 0.60 |
| Wine, beer and spirits | 0.66 |
Two cautions. Spend-based figures are averages for a whole industry, so they can't tell beef from chicken, or a cheap supplier from an expensive one. And the categories are broad: raw farm produce has a higher figure per pound than processed meat products, so how you map each supplier changes the answer. For a menu decision, such as how much difference a lower-meat menu makes, you need weights and product-level factors. For a first annual footprint, spend is the accepted starting point.
Kitchen gas and LPG
Gas for hobs, ovens, fryers and hot water is Scope 1. Take the kWh from your bills: the 2026 factor is 0.18231 kg CO2e per kWh. If your bill only shows meter readings, our post on turning a gas meter reading into kWh shows the sum. Rural cafes on LPG count litres from delivery notes instead.
Fridges, freezers and cold rooms
Refrigerant that leaks from commercial fridges and cold rooms is Scope 1 too, and it matters more than its size suggests. In 2026, 1 kg of R404A, common in older cold rooms, is 3,943 kg CO2e, while 1 kg of R290 (propane), a low-impact refrigerant, is 0.06 kg. Ask your refrigeration engineer for the kilograms topped up during the year. Our post on refrigerant leaks covers the records the F gas rules require.
A worked example
A 40-cover independent restaurant, with illustrative figures for a year and the 2026 factors:
| Source | Scope | kg CO2e |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen and heating gas, 60,000 kWh | 1 | 10,939 |
| Cold room top-up, 1.5 kg of R404A | 1 | 5,915 |
| Electricity, 45,000 kWh | 2 | 5,893 |
| Food waste, 6 tonnes to anaerobic digestion | 3 (category 5) | 54 |
| Food and drink purchases, £120,000 | 3 (category 1) | 104,157 |
| Total | 126,958 kg, or 126.96 tonnes |
The food and drink is about 82% of the total. The one small top-up of R404A is bigger than the food waste line many times over. And the food waste line is small because it goes to anaerobic digestion: the same 6 tonnes sent to landfill would be 4.20 tonnes, because food rotting in landfill gives off methane.
Where to cut
- Fix refrigerant leaks and, when cold room equipment is replaced, choose a low-impact gas.
- Send food waste to anaerobic digestion, which England's Simpler Recycling rules already push you towards, and cut how much is wasted.
- Look at the menu. Your purchase ledger shows which food groups carry most of the footprint, which is where menu changes make a difference.
- Electric kitchen equipment with a renewable tariff, when gas equipment comes to the end of its life.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Upload your purchase ledger, or connect Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreeAgent, and Carbon Recycling suggests a Defra multiplier for each supplier account, including the food groups above. Add gas and electricity bills, refrigerant top-ups by gas type and food waste by treatment, and every line gets the right year's government factor. Running several sites? Add each as a site to compare them and print a report for each. Check your bills on their own first with the free kWh to CO2e calculator.