Menu Planning Research Articles

Development of the Australian National Meal Guidelines for home-delivered and centre-based meal programs for older adults.

This research aimed to develop and disseminate National Meal Guidelines for Australian home-delivered and centre-based meal programs. Development was led by a project group of dietitians and a steering group of representatives from the Australian Meals on Wheels Association. The process framework included three phases: (1) Review of existing standards and guidelines and systematic literature review (SLR), (2) stakeholder consultation conducted via six workshops, across six states (N=212) and surveys with service providers, health professionals (N=289) and customers (N=337) and (3) review of the draft guidelines by stakeholders. The final guidelines address: nutritional needs of older adults; meal and menu planning including nutrient requirements for meal components; presentation and meal enjoyment; special diets; and enhancing the meal service. These guidelines provide consistent guidance to services providing home-delivered and centre-based meal programs. Further evaluation of their uptake and impact on service practices and customer nutrition and satisfaction is required. SO WHAT?: The National Meal Guidelines provide nationally consistent, evidence-based guidance on menu planning and nutritional quality of meals to services providing home-delivered and centre-based meal programs. The guideline development framework outlined here also provides a process for future food service guideline development.

Foodservice Management Educators’ Perspectives on Nutrition and Menu Planning in Student-Operated Restaurants

ObjectiveExplore how student-operated restaurant (SOR) managers consider and apply nutrition principles and menu planning in SORs. DesignNineteen SOR managers in the US were recruited to complete an online survey and participate in a 30–60-minute interview. Interviews were conducted via video conference and explored the menu and nutritional characteristics of the SOR at each facility. SettingSORs across the US. ParticipantsManagers of SORs. Phenomenon of InterestMenu and nutrition characteristics and their use in SORs. AnalysisDemographic data were analyzed using SPSS. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo software. ResultsThematic analysis revealed nutrition in practice, nutrition philosophy, and menu planning as the 3 major themes. Nutrition in practice captured the role of nutrition in menu planning, special diets, and healthy options. Nutrition philosophy subthemes explored issues such as the purpose of the SOR experience and instructor perspective on nutrition. Menu planning subthemes addressed issues regarding the menu development process, including menu planning that was student-driven and faculty-driven. Conclusions and ApplicationsApproaches to menu planning had varying degrees of student involvement. Although nutrition was stated as a consideration in menu planning, most programs did not include formalized nutrition criteria as part of the SOR curriculum.

Food Culture Integration in Menu Plan for a Sustainable Homestay Business

Other than providing overnight stays and local activities, the provision of food and beverage is an important aspect in the homestay business. The food and beverage aspect of a homestay has the potential of being a crucial contributing factor towards a guest’s experience whilst ensuring optimal monetary return to the homestay operators. This paper presents the findings on meal offerings provided by four homestay operators at Mantanani Island, an island off the Kota Belud coast of Sabah. This study also highlights the importance of food as an element of local culture and as an expression of the history, habits and traditions of a community. Discussions are pinned on rationalising the differences in meal offerings among operators and how this would implicate the operators’ profit margins, as well as how the local culture reflects the menu offered by the homestay participants. Finally, recommendations for improvement on meal plans are proposed to enhance the economic benefits of these operators without compromising guest experience

Nutrition knowledge and its relation with dietary behaviour in children and adolescents: a systematic review.

This review explored the relationship between knowledge among children and adolescents and their dietary behaviour. Potentially eligible original research articles were identified through a systematic search in PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and WHO Virtual Health Library from 2000 to 2018. From the initial search, a total of 7,258 research articles were obtained. Duplicate studies were identified and removed. Observational studies on children and adolescents (5-19 years) of any gender, ethnicity and country were included in which the outcome measured was either a scoring of/ association between nutrition knowledge and practices. After screening using the inclusion criteria, 13 studies were selected for this paper. Four studies reported non-significant association between overall nutrition knowledge and practices. Only two studies found a significant association, out of which one showed a weak association highlighting that nutrition knowledge is not sufficient to result in healthy eating. Other factors which showed significant but weak associations with knowledge/practices included age, gender, nutritional status and lifestyle, peer influence, parents'/guardians' knowledge, education and occupation level. The causal relationship couldn't be examined in the present review due to the cross-sectional nature of the studies. Besides imparting knowledge through nutrition education interventions, there is a need for holistic behaviour change strategies including supporting food skills like menu planning, food shopping and cooking to encourage healthy eating habits among children. These interventions should target children from an early age, involving family/parents, teachers and peers to facilitate improvement in the food environment for sustainable change.

How Are School Menus Evaluated in Different Countries? A Systematic Review.

School meals should focus on quality of life issues, particularly on reducing food shortages, overweight, obesity and its consequences. As an essential tool for quality assurance, creating the menu is an activity of great complexity and requires multidisciplinary knowledge. This activity covers the observation of countless aspects of quality, highlighting nutritional, sensory, cultural, hygienic, and sanitary issues, among others. This study aims to identify and analyze instruments and methods to evaluate school menus in different countries. The authors developed specific search strategies for Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Pubmed, Lilacs, ProQuest Global, and Google Scholar. The included studies’ methodological quality was assessed using the statistical analysis and meta-analysis review tool (MASTARI). A total of 16 cross-sectional studies met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Brazil and Spain were the countries that presented the highest number of studies (n = 5; 31.25% for each). The majority of the studies have a qualitative approach (n = 12, 75%), and only 25% (n = 4) of the studies present quantitative assessment methods to evaluate school menus. No school menu assessment tools were found to assess all aspects of menu planning. The results show a lack of a methodology or of instruments for evaluating the menus offered for school meals that can contribute to better dietary care offered to students.

A Study Protocol for a Parallel-Designed Trial Evaluating the Impact of Plant-Based Diets in Comparison to Animal-Based Diets on Health Status and Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases—The Nutritional Evaluation (NuEva) Study

Background and Aims: Currently, there is a continuing upward trend for plant-based lifestyles in Germany and Europe. The implementation of vegetarian and vegan lifestyles is characterized by omitting defined food groups such as fish, meat, sausage (vegetarians), or dairy products and honey (vegans). This carries the risk of an undersupply of valuable nutrients. The NuEva study is designed to examine this hypothesis and to evaluate the impact of plant-based diets on health status and disease risk.Methods: The NuEva study is a parallel-designed trial with at least 55 participants for each diet (vegetarian, vegan, flexitarian [rare meat/sausage consumption, once or twice per week]), and participants who consume a traditional Western diet as the control group. In the screening period critical nutrients are identified for the studied diets by analysis of a broad spectrum of nutrients in the human samples (fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, nutrient metabolites).Results: Based on the data from the screening period, defined menu plans, ensuring an adequate nutrient intake in accordance with the nutritional guidelines are prepared for each group. The plans are adapted and personalized to individual energy requirements based on the basal metabolic rate and physical activity level. The compliance with the NuEva concept and their impact on nutrient status and cardiovascular risk factors are validated during the intervention period of the NuEva study over 1 year. To investigate the impact of the studied diets on the microbiome, feces samples are collected at the beginning and after the 12 months intervention period (follow up: 12 months).Conclusion: The NuEva study is designed to investigate the impact of common diets on health and disease status, with focus on prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, the effectiveness of the prepared nutritional coaching strategy, ensuring optimal nutrient intake in accordance with the guidelines, is validated during the intervention period of the NuEva study.Clinical Trial Registration: Registered under ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier no. NCT03582020.

ANALYSIS OF MENU PLANNING, CONSUMPTION ENERGY DENSITY RELATIONSHIPS AND FOOD LEFTOVERS OF THE ELDERLY NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN SOCIAL ORPHANS

<p><strong><em>Background: </em></strong><em>The most important thing in giving food to the elderly is that the food served must meet the nutritional needs, the food served is given regularly in small portions but often, the food must be gradual and varied so as not to cause boredom, the food must be according to doctor's instructions for certain elderly and food must be soft. The elderly who live in the Werdha Nursing Home are faced with a different situation than before they lived in an orphanage. This causes the elderly to make adjustments so that their needs can be fulfilled. Health conditions in the elderly stage are largely determined by the quality and quantity of nutritional intake.<strong>Objective: </strong>This study aims to determine the analysis of menu planning, the relationship of energy consumption density and food waste to the nutritional status of the elderly at the Social Home<strong> Method: </strong>This study was an observational study of cross-sectional study design. Sampling was done by purposive sampling technique with a total of 50 elderly respondents. Bivariate analysis using Chi-Square statistical tests. <strong>Results: </strong>Planning the menu at the Social Home is carried out once a year with a seven-day menu cycle compiled by a Puskesmas Nutritionist and has a menu structure consisting of the frequency of feeding 3 main meals and 2 interludes. The application in feeding has not been adjusted to the menu made by a Nutritionist. Most respondents were aged 60-74 years (elderly). Correlation test results showed that there was no relationship between energy consumption density with the nutritional status of the elderly ( p = 0.589 ) (p> 0.05) and there was a relationship between food waste and the nutritional status of the elderly (p = 0.010 ) (p <0.05). <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Some menu planning at the Social Institution was carried out and some did not meet the factors that influenced menu planning at the institution. There is a relationship between food waste with the nutritional status of the elderly, the main factor affecting nutritional status is food intake. This is because not only because of the small amount of food left (<20%) which causes the risk of malnutrition, but there are other factors based on the questions and the results of the MNA score.</em><em> </em></p>

Consumers Perceptions on Semantic Opacity of J.CO Donuts & Coffee Menu

Consumers perception plays a noteworthy role in determining a menu. Without a doubt, the first thing that consumers will look at before deciding on their food choices is that menus and the menus are closely related to consumers perceptions. Therefore, lots of culinary businesses such as cafes and restaurants utilize strategy by creating unique food names in their menu list in order to attract more consumers. However, in opting for unique and appealing food names, the menu planning should consider the compatibility between the meaning and the food name. This study focuses on consumers perception on semantic opacity of J.CO Donuts & Coffee menu. The purpose of the study is to depict the perception of consumers towards semantic opacity menu name as well as the relation of food names, personal reference of food appearance, and meaning. This study applies a descriptive qualitative method by using an interview instrument and uses several theories, namely visual appearance of food by Kramer (1973) and a value triangle by Widyastuti & Astiandani (2020), an adaptation theory from Ogden & Richard (1946). The result shows that the meaning of food is indirectly related to food name since the meaning is not clearly stated to the food.Keywords: consumers perception, semantic opacity, food name, culinary business.

Consumers Perceptions on Semantic Opacity of J.CO Donuts & Coffee Menu

Consumers perception plays a noteworthy role in determining a menu. Without a doubt, the first thing that consumers will look at before deciding on their food choices is that menus and the menus are closely related to consumers perceptions. Therefore, lots of culinary businesses such as cafes and restaurants utilize strategy by creating unique food names in their menu list in order to attract more consumers. However, in opting for unique and appealing food names, the menu planning should consider the compatibility between the meaning and the food name. This study focuses on consumers perception on semantic opacity of J.CO Donuts & Coffee menu. The purpose of the study is to depict the perception of consumers towards semantic opacity menu name as well as the relation of food names, personal reference of food appearance, and meaning. This study applies a descriptive qualitative method by using an interview instrument and uses several theories, namely visual appearance of food by Kramer (1973) and a value triangle by Widyastuti & Astiandani (2020), an adaptation theory from Ogden & Richard (1946). The result shows that the meaning of food is indirectly related to food name since the meaning is not clearly stated to the food.Keywords: consumers perception, semantic opacity, food name, culinary business.

Assessment of Factors Affecting the Amount of Food Waste in Households Run by Polish Women Aware of Well-Being

Food waste is a pressing problem in Western countries. Increased food waste production directly affects environmental changes and pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions and contamination with packaging. In Poland, 9.2 million tons of food is lost annually, 53% of which is produced by consumers. To minimize food waste by consumers, it is necessary to understand the factors affecting the behaviors associated with food wasting. This work is focused on investigating the causes and behaviors related to food wasting, and determining the kinds of food that are wasted in Polish households run by women that possess a high awareness of well-being. It was found that most of the respondents who took part in the survey admitted that their households did waste food. It was shown that there is a positive correlation between the number of people living in a household and the amount of food wasted. It was also confirmed that age has an impact on the amount of food discarded by Polish women, because respondents over 37 years of age wasted less food and more often declared a lack of wasting compared to others. In households, fresh food with short expiry dates, including vegetables, fruit, bread, and meat, was wasted the most. The most important factors directly influencing the amount of wasted food were: purchasing too much food, a lack of expiry-date control, a lack of planning of purchases and menus, and a lack of ideas for using food residues. The main element affecting waste is purchasing too much food, most often resulting from susceptibility to promotions, willingness to buy in stock, and a lack of prior planning. Understanding the mechanisms of waste allows households to take actions to effectively reduce it, and therefore ensure greater food security in the world.

Economic evaluation of a web-based menu planning intervention to improve childcare service adherence with dietary guidelines

BackgroundDespite the known benefits of healthy eating in childhood, few Australian childcare services provide food that is consistent with dietary guidelines. The effectiveness of a web-based menu planning intervention to increase childcare service provision of healthy foods and decrease provision of discretionary foods in long day-care services in Australia was assessed in a randomised controlled trial. Here we consider the costs, consequences, cost-effectiveness and budget impact of the intervention using data collected within the trial.MethodsThe prospective trial-based economic evaluation involved 54 childcare services across New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Services were randomised to a 12-month intervention or usual care. The intervention involved access to a web-based menu planning and decision support tool and online resources. Effectiveness measures included mean number of food groups, overall menu and individual food group compliance with dietary guidelines, and mean servings of food groups at 12 months. Costs (reported in $AUD, 2017/18) were evaluated from both health sector and societal perspectives. The direct cost to support uptake of the intervention was calculated, as were costs to each childcare service. The incremental cost of the intervention was calculated as the net difference in the cost to undertake menu planning and review plus the direct cost of the intervention. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) including uncertainty intervals were estimated for differences in costs and effects between intervention and control groups. A relative value index was calculated to determine overall value for money.ResultsOver the 12 months of the trial, we calculated a difference in cost between usual practice and intervention groups of − $482 (95% UI − $859, − $56). While the measured increase in menu and food group compliance within the trial did not reach statistical significance, there were significant improvements in mean servings of fruit and discretionary food, represented in the cost-consequence analysis. The calculated relative value index of 1.1 suggests that the intervention returns acceptable value for money for the outcomes generated.ConclusionCompared to usual practice, web-based programmes may offer an efficient and sustainable alternative for childcare services to improve the provision of healthy foods to children in their care.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12616000974404

Environmental innovation and the food, energy and water nexus in the food service industry

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of environmental innovation on the balance of the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus in the food service industry. The study was carried out through the completion of questionnaires by managers of food service companies in Brazil. Structural equation modeling (SmartPLS) was used for the analysis, which was based on 206 responses. The results show that food waste can be reduced by innovation in the planning of menus and purchases and in the process of food preparation. Furthermore, the reduction of natural resource consumption, especially of water and energy, can be achieved by leveraging changes in internal processes. In this sense, the typical trade-offs associated with the FEW nexus can be solved through environmental innovation. In addition, collaborative approaches between farms, suppliers and governments are essential for the implementation of the innovation processes. The paper presents suggestions for scholars, policy makers and managers in the food service industry to address the FEW nexus challenges.

Book Review (Descriptive): Bernard D., Andrew L., Peter A. Ioannis S. (2018). Food and Beverage Management; Fourth Edition

Book Review (Descriptive): Bernard D., Andrew L., Peter A. Ioannis S. (2018). Food and Beverage Management; Fourth Edition

中学校家庭科献立作成授業における 料理レシピサイト活用の有効性 災害時を想定した備蓄食品を用いる献立作成を対象として

中学校家庭科献立作成授業における 料理レシピサイト活用の有効性 災害時を想定した備蓄食品を用いる献立作成を対象として

Application of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Healthy and Balanced School Lunches

A multi-objective formulation of the Menu Planning Problem, which is termed the Multi-objective Menu Planning Problem, is presented herein. Menu planning is of great interest in the health field due to the importance of proper nutrition in today’s society, and particularly, in school canteens. In addition to considering the cost of the meal plan as the classic objective to be minimized, we also introduce a second objective aimed at minimizing the degree of repetition of courses and food groups that a particular meal plan consists of. The motivation behind this particular multi-objective formulation is to offer a meal plan that is not only affordable but also varied and balanced from a nutritional standpoint. The plan is designed for a given number of days and ensures that the specific nutritional requirements of school-age children are satisfied. The main goal of the current work is to demonstrate the multi-objective nature of the said formulation, through a comprehensive experimental assessment carried out over a set of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms applied to different instances. At the same time, we are also interested in validating the multi-objective formulation by performing quantitative and qualitative analyses of the solutions attained when solving it. Computational results show the multi-objective nature of the said formulation, as well as that it allows suitable meal plans to be obtained.

İşyerinde Sağlığın Korunması ve Teşvikine Yönelik Uygulamalar ile Çalışanların Kurumsal Yemek Hizmetlerinden Memnuniyet Durumlarının Değerlendirilmesi

Amaç: Çalışan bireylerin kurumsal yemek hizmetlerinden memnuniyet durumlarının, tüketici memnuniyetini belirleyen faktörleri ve işyerinde sağlığın korunması ve teşvikine yönelik uygulamaların değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır.
 Bireyler ve Yöntem: Araştırmanın örneklemini, Ankara ilinde bulunan farklı kamu kurumlarında çalışan 18-65 yaş aralığında 290 erkek (%43.5), 376 kadın (%56.5) olmak üzere 666 kamu çalışanı oluşturmaktadır. Veriler, anket aracılığıyla elde edilmiştir. Katılımcıların kurumsal yemek hizmetlerinden memnuniyet durumlarının değerlendirilmesi amacıyla 39 soruluk bir memnuniyet anketi oluşturulmuştur. Anket puanları, 60 puanın altı ‘yetersiz’, 60-74 puan ‘orta’, 75-84 puan ‘iyi’, ≥85 puan ise ‘çok iyi’ olarak sınıflandırılmıştır. Oluşturulan memnuniyet anketinin iç tutarlılığı 0.88 olarak belirlenmiştir.
 Bulgular: Bireylerin yemek hizmetlerinden memnuniyetini etkileyen en önemli ilk üç faktör sırasıyla hijyen (%79.7), besin kalitesi (%78.5) ve menüde yer alan yemeklerin çeşitliliğidir (%51.2). Yemek hizmetlerinden memnuniyet puanının 65.8±11.87 (orta düzey) olduğu ve puanın kadınlara kıyasla erkeklerde yüksek olduğu belirlenmiştir (p<0.05). Memnuniyet durumunu ‘çok iyi’ olarak değerlendiren bireylerin sıklığı %5.7 iken yetersiz sınıfında yer alan bireylerin sıklığı %31.7’dir. Çalışanlar, kurumların %82.0’sinde sağlıklı beslenmeyi teşvik eden uygulamaların olmadığını, %69.0’unda sağlığın korunması ve teşvikine yönelik faaliyetler için potansiyel olanakları sunmadığını belirtmişlerdir. Kurumlarda, sağlıklı beslenmeyi teşvik etmeye yönelik hizmetler arasında en sık görülen üç hizmetin el yıkama için elverişli imkânlar (%79.4), tüm çalışanlar için içme suyuna erişim (%67.0), personel yemekhanesinde sunulan sağlıklı yemek seçenekleri (%37.1) olduğu belirlenmiştir.
 Sonuç: Sonuçlar, kurumlarda yemek hizmetlerine yönelik standartların uygulanması, çalışanların yemek hizmetlerinden memnuniyetini arttırmak adına yemeklerde lezzetin, kalitenin ve çeşitliliğin arttırılması gerekliliğini göstermektedir. Bu doğrultuda işyerleri, T.C. Sağlık Bakanlığı’nın menü planlama ve sağlıklı beslenmeye yönelik rehberlerini uygulamalıdır. Personelin sağlıklı beslenmesi ve fiziksel aktivitesinin arttırılmasına yönelik planlanacak uygulamalar personel sağlığı, motivasyonu ve verimliliği üzerine olumlu etkiler sağlayacaktır.

Development and validation of a meal quality index with applications to NHANES 2005-2014.

The Meal Balance Index (MBI) assesses the nutritional quality and balance of meals. It is a score between 0 and 100 that takes into account both shortfall and excess nutrients, adjusted for the energy content of the meal. In the present study the score was applied to 147849 meals reported in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2005-2014 in order to evaluate its validity and compare against exemplary meals designed as part of 24h diets that meet US dietary guidelines. Meals from exemplary menu plans developed by nutrition experts scored on average 76±14 (mean ± standard deviation) whereas those of NHANES participants scored 45±14. Scores of breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, considered jointly as independent variables, were moderately but positively and significantly associated with the Healthy Eating Index (Pearson correlation 0.6). MBI scores were significantly associated with the density of positive micronutrients (e.g. Vit A, Vit C) and favorable food groups (e.g. fruits, whole grains) not directly included in the MBI algorithm. The MBI is a valid tool to assess the nutritional quality of meals reported in the US population and if applied to culinary recipe websites could potentially help users to understand which meals are nutritionally balanced. Choice of more balanced individual meals can guide healthier cooking and eating.

A Memetic Decomposition-Based Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm Applied to a Constrained Menu Planning Problem

Encouraging healthy and balanced diet plans is one of the most important action points for governments around the world. Generating healthy, balanced and inexpensive menu plans that fulfil all the recommendations given by nutritionists is a complex and time-consuming task; because of this, computer science has an important role in this area. This paper deals with a novel constrained multi-objective formulation of the menu planning problem specially designed for school canteens that considers the minimisation of the cost and the minimisation of the level of repetition of the specific courses and food groups contained in the plans. Particularly, this paper proposes a multi-objective memetic approach based on the well-known multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D). A crossover operator specifically designed for this problem is included in the approach. Moreover, an ad-hoc iterated local search (ILS) is considered for the improvement phase. As a result, our proposal is referred to as ILS-MOEA/D. A wide experimental comparison against a recently proposed single-objective memetic scheme, which includes explicit mechanisms to promote diversity in the decision variable space, is provided. The experimental assessment shows that, even though the single-objective approach yields menu plans with lower costs, our multi-objective proposal offers menu plans with a significantly lower level of repetition of courses and food groups, with only a minor increase in cost. Furthermore, our studies demonstrate that the application of multi-objective optimisers can be used to implicitly promote diversity not only in the objective function space, but also in the decision variable space. Consequently, in contrast to the single-objective optimiser, there was no need to include an explicit strategy to manage the diversity in the decision space in the case of the multi-objective approach.

Restaurant menu-planning in Japan: A qualitative analysis

ABSTRACT In Asia, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a serious problem. Eating out is now common, including in Japan, and eating out has been reported to be positively related to the onset of NCDs. To improve the nutritional quality of out-of-home meals, we must be able to identify the factors affecting menu planning. However, there are no reports on how restaurateurs plan their menus in Asian countries. So, we used semi-structured interviews with 26 restaurateurs. As a result, we identified the following five factors: Sales Promotion, Internal Factors of Restaurateurs, Customer Prioritization, External Factors, and Management for Profit, which indicate that to improve the nutritional quality, efficient strategies should consider these factors.

Successful Implementation of Climate-Friendly, Nutritious, and Acceptable School Meals in Practice: The OPTIMAT™ Intervention Study

Introducing children to sustainable and healthy school meals can promote a long-term dietary shift to lower climate impact and improve population health. The aim of the OPTIMAT study was to optimize meals for minimum deviation from the current food supply while reducing greenhouse gases and ensuring nutritional adequacy without increasing cost. Optimized menus were tested in four primary schools in Sweden and effects on daily food consumption and waste evaluated. Pupils received their usual menu plan for three weeks and then the isocaloric optimized menu plan for another three weeks. Nutritional recommendations for a school lunch and a maximum of 500 g of carbon dioxide equivalents per meal (CO2 eq/meal) were applied as constraints during linear programming. Pulses, cereals, meat, and eggs increased, while fats and oils, dairy, sauces, and seasonings decreased. The amount of ruminant meat was reduced in favor of other meat products. The new menu was 28% lower in greenhouse gas emissions and slightly less costly than the original. No significant changes in mean food consumption or plate waste were found in interrupted time series analysis between the two periods. This pragmatic approach for combining linear optimization with meal planning could accelerate sustainable development of the meal sector in Sweden and abroad.