In a drive to further support sustainability goals and reduce its environmental impacts, leading provider of meals to the health and social care sector, apetito, is rolling out wild venison onto its menus for Christmas.

As part of this year’s festive offering, apetito has launched a rich Venison Pie topped with golden flaky pastry and a sliced potato topped Venison Hotpot.

Wild venison is a sustainable alternative to traditional red meats with the deer population now seeing an all-time high in the United Kingdom – causing challenges for the biodiversity of woodlands through over-foraging.

From a nutritional standpoint, venison is also nutrient rich, being high in protein, iron and vitamins, while also being a lean, low-fat meat, making it a great option to support residents' health.

On the journey to achieving Net Zero by 2040, this move showcases apetito’s commitment to acting now through driving down the use of red meat on its menus in favour of lower carbon alternatives.

Chalotte Jeune, Category Manager at apetito speaks on the addition of these meals to its Christmas offering:

“We’re pleased to be offering these two venison main dishes this Christmas, helping to lower the amount of red meat seen on our menus by providing a more sustainable alternative that equally brings nutritional benefits for customers.

“Not only does this support our own sustainability goals through helping to reduce our Scope 3 emissions, but it also supports our NHS customers on the journey to Net Zero, and the aims of partnering care homes looking to reduce their carbon footprint.”