Analysis of a Campus Lunch Menu for aspects of sustainable diets and Designing a Sustainable Lunch Menu

Due to the importance of food environment of the public dining places in promoting sustainable diets, the present study was carried out to analyze canteen menu of the School of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology sustainability and to develop a sustainable lunch menus.

First, nutrition information and quantity per capita of foods served within the last 20 days were asked from the food service manager of the canteen during the second semester of 2019–2020. The frequency of each food served, as well as food waste durung their preparation and consumption were recorded. Quantities of carbon, water and land footprints, costs and nutrient-rich food (NRF) index of the foods in the  two menus  were calculated. Then, a sustainable food menu for each two menus was designed in order to minimize water, carbon and land footprints and cost, as well as maxmizing NRF  through goal programming method.

Foods served in Menu 1, had higher mean water (P=0.011), carbon (P=0.001) and land footprints (P=0.022) and higher costs (P=0.001) but lower NRF (P=0.001), compared to those served in Menu 2. The average daily non-compostable, compostable and recyclable wastes included 19660, 6320 and 9010 g, respectively. Replacing the sustainable food menu designed for Menu 1 could decrease carbon, total water and land footprints and costs by 10, 13, 22 and 6%, respectively, and increased the NRF profile by 8%. Furthermore, replacing the sustainable menu designed for Menu 2 could result in 25, 23, 27 and 28% decreases in carbon, total water and land footprints and costs, respectively, and increased the NRF profile by 23%.

Replacement of the current menus with sustainable ones and planning to decrease food wastes are recommended to achieve national targets of resistive economy and sustainable development and to promote sustainable diets.