How to Make a Healthier Company Canteen?

How can we promote plant-based food in companies without stepping on anyone’s toes? And what is important in relation to the seven dietary tips?

Let’s start by summarizing the 7 dietary tips:

• Eat plant-rich, varied and not too much.
• Eat more vegetables and fruits.
• Eat less meat - choose legumes and fish.
• Eat whole grain foods.
• Choose vegetable oils and low-fat dairy products.
• Eat less of the sweet, salty and fatty.
• Quench your thirst in water.

If you should change a company’s canteen to serve more plant-based food in the future, then it would be important to think many years ahead because you can not change a company day by day. First of all, you would have to take a look at what food is served now, because there will definitely be a lot you do not need to change. You must gradually change the canteen’s meal plan. An example of changing a company’s canteen could be to start by removing one meat dish a week and replace it with a vegetarian choice. This could remain so until the people had become accustomed to this. Then one could implement more vegetarian days and possibly a vegan day. This would still meet the company’s needs and thus avoid too much criticism of the changes.

Through this change of the company’s canteen, I think one should have a greater focus on the ‘7 dietary tips’. Society does not quite know how these dietary tips should be implemented and used in everyday life because most people have heard of the dietary tips but only a few follow them. The ‘7 dietary tips’ have an environmentally friendly focus, which is in line with the plant-based lifestyle, as it also has a strong focus on the environment and sustainability.

If I had to pick out two dietary tips that I think are the most important I would say it was ‘Eat more vegetables and fruits and ‘Eat food with whole grains.

In order to get the company’s employees to eat more vegetables and fruits, it is important to know the recommendation for fruits and vegetables a day. The recommendation is 600 grams of fruit and vegetables a day. This could be implemented by making a salad bar in the canteen where the employees could make their own salad and thus they would be able to choose their favorite vegetables. You could also generally put more vegetables in the dishes served in the canteen, and as the company gets more vegetarian days, there will automatically be more vegetables in everyday life. In order to get the employees in the company to eat more fruit, it is important that fresh fruit is available throughout the day. One could make small mixed fruit boxes that the employees could pick up in the canteen. I would also make dishes with whole fruits in the company departments as one eats more fruits and vegetables if it stands out and is available.

If I were to get the employees of the company to eat whole grain food, I would implement the ‘keyhole label’ in the canteen. The keyhole label is various foods that contain a lot of fiber and whole grains and have a lower content of fat, unsaturated fat, sugar, and salt. The keyhole mark can be placed as signs for bread, yogurt, and possibly dressings on the buffet. This will make the employees in the company more aware of this. The recommendation is 75 grams of whole grains a day, and as I said, whole grains are good for our health, because when you eat whole grains, it helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

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Celina, Rose & Kamilla
Københavns Professionshøjskole