How Nutritics Are Transforming Sustainable Eating Through Digital Innovation

Across Europe, cities are rethinking how food choices can support healthier people and a healthier planet. As part of the €10.48 million Horizon 2020 GoGreen Routes project, research collaboration between SME Nutritics and Alan Scarry focused on how digital tools can bridge the gap between consumers’ intentions and actions regarding sustainable eating. Nutritics, are an Irish company at the forefront of nutritional analysis and sustainability technology. Together, they explored how innovative digital labelling could nudge people toward more environmentally conscious dietary choices and what this means for the future of sustainable food systems. Within a work package called ‘Move’ led at the University of Limerick, sustainable nutrition was one of several topics of concern with sustainable physical activity and active travel also addressed over the four year project timeline (2020-2024).

Why Sustainable Eating Needs Digital Solutions
Food systems today sit at the centre of global sustainability challenges. They generate a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions, drive biodiversity loss, and shape public health outcomes. Yet despite increased awareness, behavioural change remains slow. Many people express concern about the environment, but still struggle to change their everyday habits.

This collaborative research explored this gap (i.e. behavioural intention gap) in depth, revealing that while Irish adults widely recognise issues like food waste and climate impact, willingness to reduce meat consumption or try plant-based alternatives remains limited (e.g. perceived cost, taste, convenience). Education alone is rarely enough to shift behaviour; we need tools that support better choices at the moment decisions are made.

Nutritics and Foodprint: A Digital Leap Forward
Nutritics is widely used by dietitians, sports nutritionists, and foodservice teams to manage recipes, analyse nutrition, and communicate clear, accurate food information. But in recent years, they have extended their capabilities into environmental transparency.

“Foodprint” automatically calculates the carbon and water footprint of foods using the latest life-cycle assessment (LCA) data. When food businesses input recipes or ingredients, the system generates an environmental score and colour-coded label that can be displayed on menus, digital screens, or packaging. This provides consumers with an at-a-glance indicator of sustainability, a powerful nudge toward lower-impact choices.

Piloting Foodprint Labelling in Mayo University Hospital
One of the collaboration’s landmark achievements was the implementation of Foodprint in the staff canteen at Mayo University Hospital. Hospitals are ideal testing grounds: they serve large, diverse populations and have a strong institutional mission around health and wellbeing. Working with Nutritics and Aramark, Foodprint labels were introduced across daily menu offerings, and the staff and visitors were surveyed to see how they interacted with them. Visual displays highlighted carbon footprint scores alongside nutritional and allergen information, allowing people to consider sustainability at the point of choice, without removing their preferred options. Dr Laura Kirwan (Nutritics) stated that “in a food service setting, carbon labels did impact diners’ choices: over a third reported that the labels affected their meal selection, and interestingly this was higher among men. This shows that clear, trusted information can not only guide everyday dining decisions but also help operators target decarbonisation interventions where they will have the greatest impact.”

Although formal results were captured later through survey work, early feedback showed strong customer interest, and the feasibility of integrating environmental data into real-world catering environments was clear. The outputs from this work in GoGreen Routes will be soon available in published form. For Nutritics founder and Chief of Technology, Damian  O’Kelly: “The pilot study showed that carbon labelling, backed by clear, scientific data, can drive real change: over 70% of participants said they were more likely to choose a lower-carbon meal when “Foodprint” labels were used.” –

From Local Pilot to Global Impact
What began as a collaboration within GoGreen Routes gained rapid international relevance. Nutritics’ Foodprint system was selected as the central sustainability analytics platform for COP28, where catering services were tasked with delivering a 1.5°C-aligned menu across 250,000 daily meals. For the first time in COP history, detailed data on nutrition, allergens, carbon, and water values were presented to all attendees, powered by the same Foodprint tools piloted during the EU project.

This visibility demonstrated how digital tools developed in European research and innovation projects can scale globally, shaping climate action at the highest level. We look forward as an enterprise to future EU funding opportunities.

Thanks to Dr Alan Scarry (Maynooth University), Dr Laura Kirwan (Nutritics) for this contribution. GoGreen Routes received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 869764. Recently, Laura has started giving back to the EU funding ecosystem in her role as an advisory board member of GoGreen Next. In 2025, Nutritics was named the IBEC Technology Ireland Company of the Year. For further information on joining EU funding collaborations please contact info@ivi.ie