As part of our Sustainability Food & Drink Policy published in 2022, we pledged to remove beef from our menus by 2025-26, due to the huge carbon footprint it takes to produce.

We’re pleased to announce that from February, we’ll be starting to phase beef out from some of our outlets and replace it with wild culled venison, which has a far lower carbon footprint. You can find out more about the benefits of venison, and the environmental impact of using wild culled venison below.

Our first phase begins in Queens Tower Rooms and the SCR Restaurant, so keep an eye out for venison on the menu and give it a try!

Learn more about venison

Lower CO2 emissions

According to the Vegan Society’s Carbon Calculator, culled venison emits only 27% of the CO2 emissions of beef. At an average of 23.5kg CO2e/ kg, beef is one of the most carbon-emitting common ingredients in the UK.

Greenpeace UK campaigner Paul Morozzo has said that “for meat eaters, wild venison does offer a viable alternative to animals fed on industrially produced feed that's destroying forests in Brazil".

A 2021 report found that a complete removal of red meats from our menus could provide a 20% reduction in total carbon emissions. Using wild venison cuts out all of the CO2 emissions associated with farming and keeping animals and will drastically reduce the carbon emissions created by Taste Imperial across Catering and Events.