Tools- of Changes

Strategic Dish Swap Across a Weekly Menu Can Deliver Health and Sustainability Gains

Serving meals with a high carbon footprint and saturated fat content on the same day leads to greener options being chosen more often across the week.

• The researchers clustered the meals with a high carbon footprint and saturated fat content, such as lasagna and chicken Kiev, on the same day, so these more popular options competed against each other. That meant that greener options—like lentil chili and cauliflower curry—were more likely to be chosen across the week. The net effect was that the students' total weekly carbon footprint and saturated fat intake was reduced.
• The optimized menu contained the same dishes as the baseline menu; only the combination of dishes offered on each day was changed.
• This approach achieved 30.7% and 6.3% reductions in carbon footprint and saturated fatty acid intake, respectively. And it did not cause a dramatic change in consumer satisfaction when assessed the following week.
• This approach could be applied more broadly to address a range of other environmental issues (such as eutrophication, water use and land use) and nutritional issues (such as fiber, salt and sugar intake).