LONDON — Sports and entertainment venues across Britain are phasing out beef patties in favor of venison burgers as catering giant Levy UK + Ireland rolls out lower-carbon menus at more than 20 stadiums, arenas and theatres across the UK and Ireland, Dec. 11, 2025.
The hospitality firm says replacing traditional beef with wild venison could cut burger-related emissions by up to 85 percent and save about 1,182 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year, turning match-day meals into a centerpiece of many venues’ climate strategies. A recent Reuters report detailed how the move has already reshaped menus at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium and Twickenham, where thousands of fans have opted for the new burger over last season’s beef option.
Venison burgers at the heart of Levy’s lower-carbon stadium menus
At the core of the shift is Levy’s “Game On” Signature Wild Venison Burger, created with three-Michelin-starred chef Brett Graham of The Ledbury and served in a seaweed-lined tray produced by Earthshot Prize winner Notpla. Levy’s own sustainability announcement says the rollout will replace around 54 tonnes of beef burgers each year, with condiments made from surplus vegetables and buns baked using regenerative Wildfarmed flour.
Venison burgers are now being served at Premier League clubs Brentford FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, The Kia Oval cricket ground, The O2, The NEC and the National Theatre. At Twickenham alone, Levy reports that nearly 5,500 wild venison burgers were sold in just one month, including during the Women’s Rugby World Cup final, and that the new option has proved more popular than last year’s beef burger.
“Beef has the highest impact in terms of carbon emissions in all of our ingredients that we offer,” said James Beale, Brentford’s head of sustainability and community, explaining why the club backed the shift to venison burgers at home matches. He argued that swapping to wild venison, sourced from Britain’s estimated two million deer with no natural predators, offers both a lower-carbon choice for fans and a way to support better woodland management.
Wild game advocates say the move is reshaping the supply chain as well. Eat Wild, which promotes British wild meat, estimates that Levy’s swap from beef to venison burgers has the potential to save up to 1,182 tonnes of CO₂e annually while improving prices for deer stalkers after years of flat returns, according to its detailed breakdown of the partnership with Levy. The Eat Wild analysis also stresses that wild venison requires no fertiliser or feed, reducing pressure on land and water.
From carbon labels to full-scale menu change
The arrival of venison burgers marks the latest step in a decade-long push to make match-day food greener. Back in 2011, Forest Green Rovers drew global attention when it removed red meat from its stadium menu and evolved into what became known as the first fully meat-free professional football venue in England, as chronicled in coverage of The New Lawn’s environmental overhaul. That early experiment helped set the tone for later changes elsewhere in the game.
Levy has been gradually tightening its own climate ambitions. In 2021, the company said it would stop using air-freighted produce and lean heavily into seasonal British sourcing across major venues such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and The O2, as described in a Sustainability Magazine profile of its net-zero plans. More recently, Levy’s first climate impact report and work with carbon-labelling specialist Foodsteps have underpinned a 71.5 percent reduction in emissions from its beef burger recipe between 2019 and 2024, partly by using a half-beef, half-mushroom patty, according to trade title The Caterer.
Twickenham Stadium was already experimenting with carbon labels on menus in 2022, giving rugby fans information on the climate footprint of each dish before this year’s switch to venison burgers. Stadium executives told industry outlet Coliseum that the labelling was designed to let guests “choose what they want to eat with the knowledge of its effects both nutritionally or environmentally,” a philosophy that paved the way for today’s more dramatic menu overhaul. That earlier work is outlined in detail in Coliseum’s case study of Twickenham’s carbon-labelling project.
What the switch means for fans and food suppliers
Levy insists that venison burgers are not just a sustainability win but a test of whether fans will accept lower-carbon versions of match-day staples. Early sales suggest they will: Levy says supporters at Brentford and Twickenham have embraced the venison burgers, with some venues reporting that they now outsell the beef option they replaced.
For suppliers, the move signals a potentially lasting shift in demand. Wild-game producers, from small estates to large processors, are now working more closely with Levy to ensure a consistent supply of wild venison that meets food-safety and welfare standards at stadium scale, as set out in Levy’s own rollout plan and carbon-impact modelling. Industry observers say the decision could encourage other caterers and clubs to revisit their own menus, especially as more venues add carbon labels and public scrutiny of food-related emissions intensifies.
Whether venison burgers become a permanent fixture on UK concourses will ultimately depend on fans’ taste buds as much as climate targets. But at a time when stadiums are under pressure to prove they take sustainability seriously, Levy’s latest move suggests that the classic match-day burger is now very much part of the emissions debate — and no longer guaranteed to be made of beef.
