Having big UK meat-eaters cut some of it out of their diet would be like taking 8 million cars off the road. That's just one of the findings of new research that scientists say gives the most reliable calculation yet of how what we eat impacts our planet. The Oxford University study is the first to pinpoint the difference high- and low-meat diets have on greenhouse gas emissions, researchers say.

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Prof Peter Scarborough, of Oxford, who led the new research, told BBC News: ''Our results show that if everyone in the UK who is a big meat-eater reduced the amount of meat they ate, it would make a really big difference." "You don't need to completely eradicate meat from your diet."

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Prof Scarborough surveyed 55,000 people who were divided into big meat-eaters, who ate more than 100g of meat a day, which equates to a big burger, low meat-eaters, whose daily intake was 50g or less, approximately a couple of chipolata sausages, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans.

While it is well established that producing meat has a bigger environmental footprint than plant-based food, it has never been calculated in such detail, according to Prof Susan Jebb, who is head of the Food Standards Agency and a world leading nutrition scientist at Oxford University.

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The research shows that a big meat-eater's diet produces an average of 10.24 kg of planet-warming greenhouse gasses each day. A low meat-eater produces almost half that at 5.37 kg per day. And for vegan diets — it's halved again to 2.47 kg a day.

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A separate study also published in Nature Food in 2021 concluded that food production was responsible for a third of all global greenhouse gas emissions. And an independent review for the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) called for a 30% reduction in meat consumption by 2032 in order to meet the UK's net zero target.

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"In the UK it is still not accepted that we are eating an amount of meat which is inconsistent with our environmental goals. At the moment, the conversation is not how we are going to do this, but whether it is really necessary," she said. "In the case of obesity people know they shouldn't be eating confectionary cakes and biscuits. They may not want to hear it, but they know it to be true. With meat they are not wholly convinced."