”Food creates 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss. Our platform enables restaurants, brands and retailers to track and reduce the footprint of food from farm to fork'', says the team behind Foodsteps.

Foodsteps was founded by Anya Doherty in 2019 while she was researching sustainable food systems at the University of Cambridge. Anya’s work included co-leading the largest experimental trial to date into carbon labeling for food, and undertaking an environmental impact assessment of Cambridge’s own food offering.

The startup was officially launched in 2021. After completing trials with commercial food brands, Foodsteps has launched its platform for the wider industry. The aim of the platform is to make it easy and accessible for any food business to measure, reduce and communicate their environmental impact.

Basically, Foodsteps has developed an impact database incorporating the carbon footprint, pollution, water use and land use of more than 1,000 ingredients. Labels just like the ones used on electronics products to show their energy efficiency, give a rating from A-E and a QR code which consumers can scan to learn about a product's sustainability credentials, the company explained for Tech.eu.

Companies can upload thousands of foods and recipes onto the platform and then have the associated carbon footprint assessed. The platform then gives advice on how to improve sustainability.

Currently, Foodsteps works with companies from the food industry such as Pizza Express, Wagamama, Ask Italian, food delivery services and caterers.

The investment round was led by Octopus Ventures with the participation of Metaplanet, Ascension, and the Conduit EIS Impact Fund.