Sustainability FAQ's

As a company, we are committed to sustainability and will continue to work hard to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.

Plastic packaging is important to ensure food safety, whilst maximising product quality and avoiding food waste. We work closely with WRAP UK Plastics Pact and RECOUP RECOUP (RECycling of Used Plastics) to minimise our impact on the environment. Through light weighting, packaging redesign and changes in materials, our packaging team have removed 147.5 tonnes of plastic.

Find out more about our approach to plastics here

By 2022, 59% of our packaging is suitable for home recycling, including both plastic and cardboard packaging while some plastic bags can be recycled at supermarkets.

All products have a recycling label which provides clear guidance on what and how to recycle. The majority of our packaging is widely recyclable, however, for some types of packaging this will vary by your local facilities - check out Recycle Now for local recycling information. By 2025, we are committed to achieving 100% recyclability of our product packaging.

We use palm oil in Quorn products where it’s needed to help create great taste and texture. We follow advice from the World Wildlife Fund and use only RSPO segregated certified sustainable palm oil. We don't use very much palm oil – only 0.0001% of the total amount produced globally every year.

You might be surprised to hear that palm oil is an extremely efficient and high yielding crop compared to other oils, which would take between 4 and 10 times more land to produce, meaning that replacing palm oil with other oils would actually have a greater environmental impact.

Yes, Quorn only use 100% certified sustainable palm oil and have done since 2014. We are committed to using only the highest possible standards for certified sustainable palm oil. In 2019, we achieved 100% fully segregated Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) palm oil. This means any palm oil we use is physically separated from non-sustainable oil, all the way from the mill to the manufacturing of the final product. We continue to work with the RSPO, our suppliers, NGOs and other businesses to ensure a world in which there is no production of unsustainable palm oil.

Yes, Quorn products use free range eggs. As a business, we are passionate about promoting high levels of animal welfare and have a very rigid policy for the supply of egg in our products. In recognition of this, Quorn won a ‘Good Egg Award’ from Compassion in World Farming. Free range eggs are used in the Quorn vegetarian product range, however we also have a vegan range which uses potato protein as the binding agent.

You can find out more about our operational carbon footprint and many other sustainability initiatives in our Sustainability Report. In 2021 we reduced one of our key metrics – greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per tonne of production – by 83% against a 2012 baseline, a figure which we’re proud of given the huge growth of our business. But we refuse to stop there, we are aiming at the net zero target for our own operation by 2030 and across our whole supply chain by 2040.

A product carbon footprint is a way of measuring, managing and communicating the greenhouse gas emissions related to goods and services. For Quorn products we take a 'farm to fork' approach - this would include ingredients, manufacturing, packaging, transport, retail, consumer use and end-of-life treatment. Our first product carbon footprints - for our best-selling frozen products Quorn Mince and Pieces - were completed in 2012 and certified by the Carbon Trust. To find out more about carbon footprints click here.

Our sustainability team works with colleagues across our supply chain, suppliers and co-manufacturers to calculate carbon emissions released at each stage of a product's lifecycle. We then go the extra mile and have partnered with the Carbon Trust since 2012 to analyse and certify our work on product carbon foot printing. The Carbon Trust is an independent, expert third-party partner of leading organisations around the world, helping them contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable future. You can find out more about them on their website.

You can find out the carbon footprint of Quorn products here.

We have already made calculations for 60% of our products per sales volume, but we will not stay there. We will add more products to the carbon footprint list.

The Carbon Trust is an independent, expert partner of leading organisations around the world, helping them contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable future. We have chosen to partner with the Carbon Trust since 2012 to analyse and certify our work on product carbon footprinting. You can find out more about them on their website.

Our sustainability team collaborates with colleagues throughout our supply chain to calculate and secure carbon footprints throughout the product life cycle. We do our utmost and since 2012 have a partnership with Carbon Trust to analyze and certify our work to ensure carbon footprints for our products. Carbon Trust is an independent third party expert partner of leading organizations worldwide. With our collaboration, we can contribute to a more sustainable future that everyone benefits from. You can find more information about Carbon Trust on their website.

Carbon Trust is an independent third-party expert partner consisting of leading organizations worldwide. With our collaboration, we can contribute to a more sustainable future that everyone benefits from. Since 2012, we have collaborated with the Carbon Trust to analyze and certify our work to calculate carbon footprints for our products. You can find more information about Carbon Trust on their website.

We’re extra passionate when it comes to protein production. We don’t rear livestock, preferring to grow and harvest Quorn mycoprotein in giant fermenters instead. This process is better for the environment as it uses less water, produces fewer greenhouse gases and takes up less land. Find out more about how including Quorn as part of your mealtimes can contribute to the health of our planet.