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yesterday

Reordering Menus Predicted to Cut Carbon and Saturated Fat in NHS Hospitals

Researchers say rotating the same dishes across different days creates healthier competition that nudges patients toward greener, lower-fat choices without altering recipes.

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Overview

  • In a modeling study using weekly menus from 12 NHS hospitals, optimized schedules were predicted to cut meal carbon footprints by 9.1% to 29.3% and saturated fat by 5.0% to 26.5%, with effects in 11 of 12 sites.
  • The approach keeps the same 15 dishes but changes which items appear on which days so popular high-carbon, high–saturated fat options compete with each other rather than with healthier choices.
  • A prior real-world canteen trial with about 300 diners at the University of Bristol found roughly a 30% drop in the carbon footprint of meals chosen and a 6% reduction in saturated fat.
  • The team characterizes the technique as a low-cost behavioral nudge that operates without recipe changes or overt prompts and reports little effect on diner satisfaction.
  • The work, part of the SNEAK project, appears in a Philosophical Transactions B special issue on transforming food systems, and the researchers are exploring a tool to help caterers generate optimized menus.