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Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
0921-3449/© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Full length article
Investigating goal conicts in menu planning in Swedish school catering on
the pathway to sustainable development
Niina Sundin
a
,
*
, Christopher Malefors
a
, Maja Danielsson
a
, Marina Hardiyanti
a
,
Christine Persson Osowski
b
, Mattias Eriksson
a
a
Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7032, Uppsala SE-75007, Sweden
b
Department of Public Health Sciences, M¨
alardalen University, Sweden
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Food waste prevention
Plate waste
Serving waste
Preconceived ideas
Food choice
Public catering
ABSTRACT
The 260 million publicly funded school meals served annually in Sweden generate 21.000 tons of food waste. At
national level, school meals should meet the goal of food waste reduction, together with various other goals such
as meeting nutritional requirements, being environmentally friendly and, most importantly, achieving high
acceptance among schoolchildren. There is a preconception among kitchen staff that the most popular school
meals drive food waste in Swedish school catering and that vegetarian dishes increase food waste, despite being
less popular than meat options. By applying mixed methods, this study investigated possible goal conicts be-
tween reduced food waste, high acceptance, and vegetarian options on the lunch menu. An overall aim was to
gain knowledge on how lunch menus could be adapted for increased sustainability. Kitchen staff from 10
Swedish primary and secondary schools were interviewed to identify the most popular and unpopular meals, and
food waste quantication data and lunch menus from 61 school canteens were analyzed. The results showed that,
while the common perception of popular and vegetarian meals creating most waste was held by kitchen staff, it
proved to be untrue. In fact, popular school meals and vegetarian options generated less waste than unpopular
meals. A vegetarian paradox was detected in interviews, with vegetarian options considered unpopular but with
several vegetarian options among the most popular dishes. Thus, school-catering units should stop serving un-
popular meals and shift their focus to serving popular nutritious meals, including popular plant-based options, as
part of efforts to make school meal schemes more sustainable.
1. Introduction
Food waste is a global issue that comes at an enormous environ-
mental, social, and economic cost of 2.6 trillion USD per year (FAO,
2014). To tackle the food waste issue, the United Nations Agenda for
Sustainable Development has set a global target to halve food waste per
capita at retail and consumer level by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). To
contribute to this global target, Sweden has implemented an action plan
to reduce food loss and waste by 2030 (Swedish Food Agency et al.,
2018). Large amounts of food are wasted in Sweden, as excess food
intake (i.e., metabolic food waste), amounting to 0.5 million tons per
year, and as direct waste, estimated at 1.1 million tons per year (Hult´
en
et al., 2022; Sundin et al., 2021). In 2020, an estimated 33,000 tons of
food waste were disposed by large-scale catering establishments in
Sweden (Hult´
en et al., 2022). The actual amount of food waste varies
between school kitchens and between different areas in Sweden, but in
2020 the national average for total food waste from school kitchens was
approximately 50 gs per pupil, excluding beverages (Malefors et al.,
2022a). Since food waste is generated throughout the entire food supply
chain, reduction efforts are necessary at each step, including public
catering establishments in schools and preschools, to reach the overall
reduction target by 2030.
School meals in various forms are served around the world, but the
Swedish school meal scheme is considered unique due to its inclusive-
ness. A midday meal is served free of charge every weekday to all pupils
of compulsory school age (6–15 years) and to most students in upper
secondary school, regardless of parental income (Swedish Parliament,
2010). Thus every year, 260 million publicly funded school meals are
served in Sweden (Swedish Food Agency, 2022a). The overall re-
sponsibility for these meals lies with municipalities, and the practical-
ities of planning and cooking, and kitchen facilities, may differ across
Sweden. However, in all cases the meals are served hot, usually with
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: niina.sundin@slu.se (N. Sundin).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Resources, Conservation & Recycling
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106822
Received 28 June 2022; Received in revised form 25 November 2022; Accepted 2 December 2022
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
2
several alternatives to choose from, and are accompanied by salad,
bread, spread, and milk or water. Since 2011, Swedish law stipulates
that school meals must be nutritious (Swedish Parliament, 2010), and
according to national guidelines they must supply one-third of recom-
mended daily energy and nutrient intake in children (Swedish Food
Agency, 2021). The national guidelines state the importance of pupils
enjoying school meals, while at the same time challenging their taste
preferences. School meals are also intended to be a teaching occasion
(educational meals), where children can learn healthy eating habits and
are encouraged trying new foods (Persson Osowski and Fjellstr¨
om,
2019). Exposing children to food may increase their liking of different
foodstuffs (Birch and Fisher, 1996; Cooke, 2007), whereas forcing them
to eat may result in food rejection (Batsell et al., 2002). Learning healthy
eating habits is essential, for example, in preventing overweight and
obesity in children, the prevalence of which is high and increasing with
age in Sweden (Public Health Agency of Sweden, 2019). Thus, the school
meal scheme serves an important function in promoting public health in
Sweden contributing to a more equal society and sustainable
development.
In addition to meeting nutritional requirements through school
meals, there is an increasing focus on environmental sustainability,
through reduced food waste and also by making conscious choices, such
as cooking more plant-based meals to reduce the carbon footprint.
Already, 70% of Swedish municipalities have set targets to reduce food
waste, while more than 33% have taken their own initiative in setting
reduction targets for the climate impact of food consumption (Swedish
Food Agency, 2022b). Offering a daily vegetarian alternative is not
mandatory in Swedish school catering but has become increasingly
common, with 63% of municipalities offering vegetarian alternatives to
their pupils in all primary and secondary schools, in accordance with the
national guidelines (Swedish Food Agency, 2022b). However, in order
for school meals to fulll their fundamental purpose in terms of pro-
moting public health while being environmentally sustainable, the
meals must achieve high acceptance among schoolchildren. Food that is
not eaten, no matter how nutritious or environmentally conscious,
serves no purpose.
Meeting all these goals simultaneously could be challenging. In fact,
there is a common perception among kitchen staff in Sweden that the
most popular school meals generate the most food waste, suggesting a
potential conict between high acceptance and environmental sustain-
ability of school meals (Eriksson et al., 2016; Prim and Broberg, 2013).
Consequently, kitchen staff may limit the quantity of food that pupils
can be served in a single serving, in order to reduce food waste. These
types of actions are unpopular among pupils, who interpret them as an
attempt to limit how much they are allowed to eat (Bjernevall, 2022).
It is not clear whether the common perception that popular school
meals generate most waste is true, but it is treated as fact since catering
staff use it as justication to reduce the portion size of popular dishes. It
may have arisen from the notion of greater wastage of popular meals due
to schoolchildren taking larger portion sizes of these meals. Larger
portion sizes have been identied as a factor signicantly increasing
plate waste in school and work canteens (Boschini et al., 2020; Lor-
enz-Walther et al., 2019; Pires et al., 2022; Steen et al., 2018). When
popular school meals are served, pupils prefer to opt for larger portions
instead of awaiting second servings, to avoid unnecessary queuing time
and due to a fear that the food will run out (Eriksson et al., 2016). Pupils
also seem to think that they can eat more of their favorite dishes,
although in reality they cannot always nish the whole portion (Eriks-
son et al., 2016; Modin, 2011). However, not liking the food is reported
to be another main reason for pupils wasting served school meals
(Boschini et al., 2020; Cordingley et al., 2011; Prim and Broberg, 2013).
Unpopular school meals have also been associated with more serving
waste with food being prepared, but not served (Cordingley et al., 2011).
To assess the wastage levels of the most popular and unpopular
school meals, the preferences of schoolchildren need to be known. Ac-
cording to previous studies conducted in Sweden, the most popular
meals include pancakes, hamburgers, tacos, pizza, chicken, pasta Bolo-
gnese, and lasagna (Eriksson et al., 2016; Prim and Broberg, 2013). The
most unpopular meals are reported to be sh with potatoes, black
pudding, potato pancakes, and beef with potatoes (Eriksson et al.,
2016). However, evidence is lacking regarding the most popular and
unpopular vegetarian school meals in Sweden and the degree to which
these are wasted. Unpopularity of vegetarian school meals in general,
including components such as salad and fruit, has been highlighted by
some previous studies, suggesting that these meals contribute to
increased food waste levels (Byker et al., 2014; Byker Shanks et al.,
2017; Donadini et al., 2022; Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014). In
addition, plant-based protein sources have been shown to lead to
increased plate waste in schools (Lindke et al., 2022). On the other hand,
increased acceptance of vegetarian dishes among schoolchildren has
also been indicated (Keyzer et al., 2012; Lazor et al., 2010; Lombardini
and Lankoski, 2013).
Several previous studies have investigated food waste levels in
school catering (Eriksson et al., 2017, 2019; Malefors et al., 2019,
2022b; ¨
Ostergren and Backlund, 2019). However, large-scale studies
investigating possible goal conicts between high meal acceptance,
reduced food waste, and vegetarian options are still scarce. Accurate
knowledge on how to develop school lunch menus that provide meals
with high acceptance among pupils, while maintaining high sustain-
ability through low levels of food wastage and reduced meat con-
sumption, is essential for transition to a more sustainable food system.
Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether high
or low acceptance and the presence of vegetarian meals on the school
lunch menu inuence food waste levels. A further aim was to gain an
in-depth understanding of kitchen staff’s perspectives on the wastage
associated with school meals and on how the school lunch menu could
be adapted to reduce the environmental impact.
2. Material and methods
Mixed methods combining qualitative and quantitative approaches
were applied to enable a more complete and comprehensive analysis of
the wastage of school meals in relation to their popularity. First, quali-
tative data from semi-structured interviews (Kvale, 1996) with kitchen
staff were used to categorize the level of popularity (level of acceptance)
of different meals among schoolchildren. The interviews also aimed to
explore kitchen staff’s perspectives and experiences regarding food
wastage in school catering. These qualitative data were then combined
with quantitative food waste data on lunch menus in school canteens.
The study design is illustrated in Fig. 1.
2.1. Qualitative method
The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview
guide. In semi-structured interviews, participants can speak freely about
issues that are important to them, allowing for a variety of perspectives
to be conveyed, while the interview adheres to the topic through pre-
formulated questions (Kallio et al., 2016). To test the interview guide
and allow revision of the interview questions, four pilot interviews were
conducted with kitchen staff from two primary schools and one pre-
school in Stockholm. In these pilot interviews, the kitchen staff were
asked partially open-ended semi-structured questions. The interview
questions were slightly reformulated based on the results, but without
any major changes to the content, resulting in 12 interview questions
(see Appendix A).
After completing the pilot interviews, actual data collection was
conducted by interviewing school kitchen staff in Uppsala Municipality
in March 2022. To recruit participants, the convenience sampling
method was used. Those responsible for school meals in the municipality
were contacted, and in turn provided a list of suitable contacts among
the kitchen staff. In total, 13 kitchen staff members from seven primary
and secondary schools participated in face-to-face interviews. The
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
3
interviews were conducted in either Swedish or English by two research
team members, with each interview lasting approximately 20 min.
Questions were asked about (1) popular and unpopular dishes; (2)
popular and unpopular vegetarian dishes; (3) pupils’ attitudes to school
meals; (4) the kitchen’s strategies to lower food waste; and (5) the
impact of these strategies on the pupils. During the interviews, notes
were made using a laptop computer, with pauses to type in the answers
when necessary. As both the questions and responses were similar for
the pilot and actual interviews, the pilot interview results were included
in the nal analysis. Thus in total, 17 kitchen staff from one preschool,
seven primary schools, and two upper secondary schools in Sweden
were represented in the data. Informed written consent was obtained
from each participant and the participants were allowed to withdraw
their consent at any time. All data were treated condentially, and the
participants were coded to protect their anonymity (Appendix B). Dur-
ing the study, no sensitive personal data were collected from the inter-
view participants and therefore obtaining ethical approval was not
necessary.
2.2. Quantitative methods
All food waste quantication data were collected at canteen level by
kitchen staff themselves as part of their daily routine. They weighed all
food waste generated during lunches according to the standard estab-
lished by the Swedish Food Agency, (2020), whereby food waste is
divided into kitchen waste (waste produced in production kitchens),
serving waste (leftovers from servings that never reach guests’ plates),
and plate waste (guests’ unconsumed waste). Because kitchen waste
represents a relatively small fraction (8%) of the total food waste
generated in Swedish school kitchens, only serving waste (48%) and
plate waste (44%) were included (Malefors et al., 2019). Each guest who
attends the meals is also counted as part of the food waste quantication
work, to calculate the relative indicator ‘waste per guest’ (in grams). The
quantication work took place in 61 school canteens in Uppsala Mu-
nicipality and the data collected covered the period November 2019 to
September 2021. In addition to serving waste and plate waste quanti-
cation data, lunch menu data for the same period as the food waste
data were obtained from the municipality and used in the analysis.
All data were subjected to a cleaning process in which any doubtful
data, such as food waste recorded in grams instead of kilograms, were
corrected. The next step was to establish a basis for analyzing the can-
teens on equal terms, i.e., only data from canteens that quantied the
amount of serving waste, plate waste, and guests per day were selected
for further evaluation. If a canteen did not quantify one of these pa-
rameters on a particular day, all data for that day were discarded, as
further explained by Malefors et al. (2019). To enable robust analysis of
the key performance indicator ‘waste per guest’ (g), the median value
was used to reduce the impact of outliers or extreme values. Data on the
lunch menus, which were served buffet-style and consisted of 1–3 main
hot meals per day, mostly with at least one vegetarian option, were
combined with the food waste data on a daily basis.
2.3. Analysis
The qualitative data were interpreted using thematic analysis (Braun
and Clarke, 2006). The interview transcripts were rst translated into
English and the translations were then double-checked to ensure their
accuracy. The analysis started with reading the data, with the re-
searchers reading the transcripts several times to determine the appro-
priate codes. The codes were grouped into sub-themes, which were then
merged into broad themes. In the coding process, codes and themes were
discussed repeatedly to ensure that all researchers shared the same
interpretation.
The interview data were also used to categorize the menus. Since the
school meals were served buffet-style, food waste quantication data on
meal or food item level were not available. Therefore based on kitchen
staff’s statements in the interviews, the daily lunch menus were cate-
gorized into three types: ‘high acceptance’, ‘low acceptance’, and days
with ‘both’ high acceptance and low acceptance meal options. The
category ‘high acceptance’ comprised days when only popular options
were served, while ‘low acceptance’ comprised days when only un-
popular options were served. Hereafter, the terms high/low acceptance
and popular/unpopular are used interchangeably. Furthermore, based
on what was served, the menus were classied as days with a ‘mixed
menu’, i.e., with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals being
served, and days with a ‘vegetarian menu’, i.e., with solely vegetarian
meals being served. The results on the popularity of meals and vege-
tarian meals were then used as categorization input for the quantitative
Fig. 1. Study design applied, including qualitative and quantitative methods and procedures used to collect and analyze data.
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
4
analysis. The quantitative material used for analysis was based on 9262
observations from 61 kitchens, as summarized in Table 1.
The results are presented as grouped scatter plots with condence
intervals (95% level) comparing food waste quantities between days
when popular meals, unpopular meals, or both popular and unpopular
meals were served. The food waste plots are further divided into mixed
menu and vegetarian menu days. The qualitative and quantitative data
were combined in the nal analysis.
3. Results
The analysis resulted in three themes: 1) the vegetarian paradox; 2)
the waste myth concerning popular school meals; and 3) methods for
mitigating food waste. These themes are presented below, with exem-
plifying quotes and supporting quantitative data when applicable.
3.1. The vegetarian paradox
The opinions about popular and unpopular meal options were
similar among kitchen staff at the various schools. According to the
kitchen staff, unpopular meal options included vegetarian dishes in
general, as well as stews, sh stew, sh gratin, and meals including
visible vegetables and mixed ingredients:
“Strange vegetarian dishes, lentils, vegetables, they [pupils] are
afraid of these. Some sh gratin, they [pupils] don’t like it.” (001)
Meatballs, pasta, spaghetti bolognese, various potato dishes,
chicken, hamburgers, lasagna, sausages, and tacos were considered the
most popular meal options, but also pancakes, which were vegetarian:
“Most popular are pancakes, the only dish they don’t regard as
vegetarian.” (001)
Thus, a vegetarian paradox was detected in the material, with
kitchen staff claiming that all vegetarian dishes are unpopular but with
several vegetarian meal options among the most popular dishes. The
most popular vegetarian meal options were pancakes, vegetarian nug-
gets, vegetarian schnitzel, red lasagna, potato pancakes, vegetarian
tacos, and vegetarian soups. Other meal options considered popular, but
not mentioned as many times, were falafel, soy sausage, curry with
Quorn, and pasta with gorgonzola. Unpopular vegetarian options were
vegetarian patties with rice, beans, peas, mixed stews or stews with le-
gumes, lentils, dishes where the vegetables were visible, cabbage pud-
ding, and mushrooms. Some vegetarian dishes, such as vegetarian
patties, vegetarian nuggets, stews, soy sausage, and gratin with cheese,
divided opinion, as they were considered both popular and unpopular.
Some kitchen staff mentioned unfamiliarity with vegetarian dishes as
the reason for pupils disliking these dishes. The kitchen staff also
explained that the popular vegetarian dishes, such as pancakes and
potato pancakes, were not considered vegetarian, because they did not
include any visible vegetables. The kitchen staff reported that the pupils
accepted vegetables when served as tacos, nuggets, or lasagna, i.e., in
cases where the dishes looked or tasted similar to meat.
“They like soy sausage, they like vegetarian tacos. They like when it
tastes or looks like meat.” (008)
The kitchen staff also reported that the pupils wanted varied school
lunches, especially the salad buffet offering side dishes. These vege-
tarian meal options were considered popular and included potato salad,
pasta salad, “pizza salad” (cabbage mixed with oil, vinegar, pickled
peppers and seasoning), and raw vegetables, such as tomato, cucumber,
and sweet pepper served in separate serving bowls. However, serving
these was not always possible for budget reasons. During winter in
particular, it was challenging to offer as large a variety as pupils would
like in the salad buffet for cost reasons, according to the kitchen staff.
3.2. The waste myth concerning popular school meals
The interviews revealed that the perception that the most popular
school meals generate most waste was commonly held by the kitchen
staff. As an explanation, the staff highlighted pupils’ behavior of taking
too large portions of their favorite food, but then not being able to clear
their plates. As a result, more plate waste was generated, in their
opinion:
“The popular dishes are thrown away the most. The least favorite
dishes are not wasted as much. Some pupils think they like the food
and therefore take more, but it can be wasted because they can’t
nish it or because they think the taste is not good enough.” (001)
This perception that popular dishes result in more waste appears to
be a myth. In fact, the quantitative results indicated a lower level of food
waste for popular compared with unpopular lunch menus, as illustrated
in Fig. 2. On analyzing serving waste and plate waste combined with lunch
menu data, in most cases it was found that unpopular dishes generated
more food waste than popular dishes, regardless of whether the menu of
the day was mixed or vegetarian. More specically, days when unpop-
ular dishes were served had signicantly higher levels of plate waste than
days when popular dishes were served. The amount of serving waste was
also signicantly higher on days with unpopular options than on days
with popular options when a mixed menu was served.
In the case of mixed menus, popular meals generated 11% less plate
waste than unpopular meals. In the case of vegetarian menus, analysis of
plate waste revealed that the amount was 19% higher when unpopular
meals were served in comparison with popular meals. In terms of serving
waste, on days with a mixed menu, unpopular meals generated 21%
more serving waste than popular meals. On days with a vegetarian menu,
there was no difference in serving waste between unpopular and popular
meals.
On days with mixed menus, the sum of plate waste and serving waste
was 49.5 g/guest when unpopular meals were served, and 41.2 g/guest
when popular meals were served indicating a reduction of 17% in food
waste. However, on days with a combination of unpopular and popular
meals, food waste totaled 44 g/guest, which also indicated a reduction
(−11%), on days with a mixed menu. On days with a vegetarian menu, a
food waste reduction of 21% was found between days with unpopular
meals (49.6 g/guest) and days with both unpopular and popular meals
(39.2 g/guest) when plate waste and serving waste were summed up.
3.3. Methods for mitigating food waste
The staff used various methods for mitigating food waste. With some
exceptions during the Covid-19, the pupils were serving themselves the
amount of food they wished to have, however, the staff tried to
encourage pupils to consider their portion sizes by encouraging them to
take smaller portions rst and come back for seconds later. One school
also had a separate line for second servings to reduce queuing time,
thereby minimizing the risk of children serving themselves too much on
the rst occasion, as they know that they would have time to come back
for seconds. Another method used for mitigating waste was to use the
leftovers as ingredients for other meals on the following day. A third
strategy was to change the amount of food prepared, with some kitchens
reducing the amount of food they prepared on days when unpopular
Table 1
Numbers of days with menus classied as ‘high acceptance meals’, ‘low accep-
tance meals’ and ‘both’ high acceptance and low acceptance meals, further
divided into days with a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options (“Mixed
menu”) and days with only vegetarian options (“Vegetarian menu”).
Mixed menu (n) Vegetarian menu (n)
High acceptance meals 1209 536
Low acceptance meals 1629 488
Both 4018 1382
Total 6856 2406
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
5
dishes were served. To ensure that the pupils had enough food to eat on
those days, kitchen staff increased the amount of side dishes, such as
baked bread. This strategy was followed because the pupils tended to eat
more of the side dishes, instead of the main courses, when unpopular
meal options were on the menu:
“When they [pupils] do not like the food, they eat the side dishes or
pasta/rice/potato instead.” (011)
To overcome the problem of unpopular visible vegetables, the
kitchen staff reported that they simply concealed the vegetables in the
dishes, thereby increasing the popularity of such meals:
“If you can hide the vegetables, they [pupils] eat them; the kitchen
tries to hide the vegetables.” (001)
Perceptions among the kitchen staff about the level of wastage
associated with vegetarian dishes varied, with some stating that vege-
tarian dishes generated more waste than non-vegetarian dishes and
others claiming the opposite or reporting no difference. To increase
pupils’ intake of vegetarian dishes, one kitchen had used a nudging
strategy by changing the order of the lunch buffet to place vegetarian
dishes rst (Bucher et al., 2016). This move was considered rather
effective in increasing pupils’ intake of vegetarian dishes, although staff
reported that the pupils still preferred non-vegetarian dishes.
Some of the kitchen staff interviewed reported that their methods for
lowering food waste had actually worked, while others reported the
opposite. A common challenge mentioned during the interviews was
difculty in increasing pupils’ interest in reducing food waste on their
own, and kitchen staff felt that they needed support from the teaching
staff in this regard. According to the kitchen staff, younger pupils usually
listened to them more closely, while the older pupils mostly did not take
their advice seriously:
“The younger children listen more and understand more about food
waste, especially when you talk to them. The younger pupils also
have more teachers eating with them and explaining food waste to
them. But the older pupils barely notice or don´t care about food
waste.” (003)
4. Discussion
This study investigated possible goal conicts between high
acceptance of school meals, reduced food waste, and including vege-
tarian options in Swedish school lunch menus. The results suggested that
these goals are not conicting and that there is scope for serving meals
that fulll all three goals. In fact, the results showed that unpopular
lunch menus generated more food waste than popular menus, suggesting
that popular meals should be favored over unpopular meals on school
lunch menus. The results also indicated that vegetarian menus did not
generate more food waste than mixed menus including meat, and in fact
generated less in some cases, suggesting that popular vegetarian meals
should be encouraged on Swedish school lunch menus. These ndings
contradict the common perception of popular meals generating the most
food waste, which interviews revealed to be widely held among kitchen
staff. The perception seemed to be rooted in a common view of pupils
taking excessively large portions of the options they liked the most and
not being able to nish these portions, resulting in more food waste.
While previous studies have identied large portion size as a risk factor
for plate waste (Steen et al., 2018), the results obtained in the present
study suggest that the common perception that meals with high pupil
acceptance generate the most food waste is erroneous.
Our analysis showed that unpopular menus generated more plate
waste than popular menus, regardless of whether the lunch menu was
vegetarian (+23%) or mixed (+12%). This is in line with ndings by
Thorsen et al. (2015) that liking school meals is negatively associated
with percentage plate waste among Danish schoolchildren. Moreover,
according to a recent survey of 15-year-old pupils in Sweden, success
factors for reduced food waste in their opinion are good food and tastiness
(K¨
ohn and Boode Nylander, 2020). The results obtained in the present
study contradicted previous ndings of greater wastage of vegetarian
meals and components (Byker et al., 2014; Byker Shanks et al., 2017;
Keyzer et al., 2012; Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014). On days when
the lunch menu included meals of high and low acceptance, we found
that the amount of plate waste was 13% lower and serving waste was
12% lower on vegetarian days than on days when the menu included
meat options (mixed menu) (Fig. 2). We also found that popular vege-
tarian menus had a similar degree of plate waste as popular mixed
menus, but 17% less plate waste than disliked mixed options.
Vegetarian options in general and dishes with visible vegetables
were considered by kitchen staff to be low acceptance options among
pupils. However, when more specic questions were asked, the inter-
view responses paradoxically revealed that many vegetarian options,
such as vegetarian nuggets, vegetarian schnitzel, red lasagna, potato
Fig. 2. Food waste levels, divided into serving waste ( ) and plate waste ( ), of popular and unpopular dishes served in a mixed menu and a vegetarian menu.
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
6
pancakes, tacos, and soups, actually had rather high acceptance among
pupils, whereas meals containing legumes, lentils, beans, and mush-
rooms had low acceptance. This difference between liked and disliked
dishes and food components could be partly caused by the food texture
preferences of children, which have been found to be a major reason for
them rejecting or accepting food (Cappellotto and Olsen, 2021). Inter-
estingly, children living in northern European countries, such as Swe-
den, have been identied as hard-likers, while children living in southern
Europe have been identied as soft-likers (Laureati et al., 2020). Ac-
cording to Laureati et al. (2020), hard-likers have lower consumption of
legumes (commonly eaten soft-cooked), but higher consumption of
vegetables (often served raw in the north), which could also explain our
ndings of high popularity of breaded foods (crispy, hard surface) and
tacos, and the unpopularity of cooked vegetables, beans, and mush-
rooms (soft). However, we identied some contradictions in acceptance
of certain vegetarian meals, as some options, such as vegetarian patties
and nuggets and soy sausages, were considered both liked and disliked.
The wider condence intervals found for vegetarian menus in compar-
ison with mixed menus (Fig. 2) could be due to this contradiction in
acceptance of vegetarian meals, supporting the view that some pupils
may like vegetarian options while others dislike them. A previous study
identied signicant differences in school meal liking, including vege-
tarian meals, based on pupils’ sex (Donadini et al., 2022). Interviews
with kitchen staff in the present study revealed that pupils’ unfamiliarity
with vegetarian meals and their perception of vegetarian food as con-
sisting only of vegetables could partly explain the contradictory ndings
on acceptance of vegetarian options.
In the vegetarian paradox revealed by the interview material, several
vegetarian meals were reported to be popular. The results also revealed
a decreasing trend of food wastage when serving popular school menus
instead of unpopular school menus, whether with vegetarian or mixed
menus (Fig. 2). While the results demonstrated that serving unpopular
school meals leads to a greater amount of food waste, it can also be
concluded that serving popular meals is likely to lead to higher food
intake among pupils in comparison with unpopular meals. Increasing
the frequency of popular vegetarian options on school lunch menus
could bring several advantages in addition to reduced food waste, e.g., it
would reduce the carbon footprint of school meals and likely lead to
more healthy and nutritious school meals. Diets low in greenhouse gas
emissions have been found to be as nutritious as diets high in emissions
(B¨
alter et al., 2017). Vegetarian eating patterns may also be associated
with a reduced risk of negative health outcomes, including diabetes,
ischemic heart disease, and cancer risk (Oussalah et al., 2020). The
prevalence of overweight and obesity among children is high and on the
rise, so prevention measures are of the utmost importance (Public
Health Agency of Sweden, 2019). Overweight and obesity are major
contributors to ill health, and are also an environmental burden
contributing to metabolic food waste (Sundin et al., 2021; WHO, 2021).
The causes of overweight and obesity are complex, but the fundamental
cause is considered an energy imbalance between energy intake and
expenditure, often caused by so-called obesogenic environments where
energy-dense foods are readily available and sedentary lifestyles prevail
(WHO, 2021). While high acceptance, or high intake, of school meals
could be argued to contribute to overweight, and thus metabolic food
waste, school meal schemes have been identied as a key measure in
prevention of childhood obesity, through their ability to promote
healthy food environments for children (European Commission, 2013).
Serving nutritious and increasingly plant-based school meals that are
popular among pupils is likely to play an important role in this regard.
Our interviews with kitchen staff uncovered some successful strate-
gies that they use to increase pupils’ liking for unpopular vegetarian
meals, in an attempt to reduce food waste. One strategy was to hide
vegetables in different dishes. Another strategy was to cook vegetarian
meals that look and taste similar to popular meat options, such as tacos,
nuggets, or lasagna. Since kitchen staff are rst-hand observers of pupils’
meal acceptance, close co-operation between municipal menu planners
and kitchen staff, exploiting the experience and cooking skills of the
kitchen staff, could be an important factor for success in developing
school lunch menus that meet different economic, environmental, and
nutritional goals. However, meeting multiple goals can be challenging,
with kitchen staff indicating that they would need help from teaching
staff to reduce waste. In particular, the staff regarded older pupils as
hard to reach and as generating more food waste, which is in line with
previous ndings (Eriksson et al., 2017; Steen et al., 2018). Educational
meals, where school lunches are integrated with appropriate teaching
activities in order to promote healthy eating habits for children (Persson
Osowski et al., 2013), are a possible solution warranting further study.
The kitchen staff interviewed in this study applied some food waste
mitigation measures with potential implications for the nutrient intake
of schoolchildren. Some kitchen staff asked pupils to start with one
portion and come back for a second serving, especially when popular
meals were served. The intention of the kitchen staff was not to limit
food intake by the pupils, but rather to prevent plate waste, but there is a
risk that this measure could be misinterpreted by the pupils as a way to
restrict their intake (Bjernevall, 2022). Therefore, communications on
portion limitations must be very clear, to avoid such misunderstandings
and ensure the satiety of schoolchildren. Another food waste mitigation
measure was to cook less food and serve more bread and side dishes
instead, to ensure satiety of the schoolchildren on days when unpopular
meals were on the lunch menu. However, school meals are usually
carefully planned, including calculations to ensure that the nutritional
requirements of schoolchildren are met (Swedish Food Agency, 2021),
and similarly to plate waste, deviating from the plan could have impli-
cations for nutrition intake among pupils. This type of measure can be
considered as sub-optimizing the goal of school meals, whereas simply
replacing unpopular meals with popular meals would likely lead to a
more optimal solution.
There were some weaknesses with the present study, e.g., qualitative
data on popular and unpopular school meals were obtained from kitchen
staff instead of pupils. However interviewing the kitchen staff was also a
strength of the study, because of their knowledge and experience
regarding food wastage, food service, meal preparation, and school meal
acceptance. The categorization of popular and unpopular dishes was
based on interviews from only two municipalities in Sweden, which is a
possible weakness. However, 17 kitchen staff were interviewed in total
and the popularity of dishes was consistent among the interviewees and
agreed with previous literature (e.g. Eriksson et al., 2016), so the results
are likely to be generalizable. Other limitations were that the interviews
were short and not audio-recorded, which may have limited the possi-
bilities to pick up all the quotes during the interviews and in turn may
have set some limitations on the thematic analysis.
Swedish school meals are publicly funded and in many cases pro-
vided by public organizations, so school catering is steered by political
goals where protability is not the highest priority. There is therefore
great potential for the ndings in the present study to be incorporated
directly into Swedish public food service organizations. Some results can
probably also be useful in other countries, as school meals are not
unique to Sweden. What policymakers can learn from the present study
is that there are ways to avoid the perceived goal conict between
reduced waste, more vegetarian meals, and high acceptance among
pupils.
One way to enable school catering to meet multiple goals is to in-
crease the frequency of meals that have high acceptance, have low waste
levels, and are vegetarian, which in a Swedish context means e.g.,
pancakes, vegetarian nuggets, and vegetarian tacos. Meals that have low
acceptance, that include meat, and that result in high waste, such as
mixed dishes with sh or meat that include visible vegetables could be
completely removed from the menu or at least served at a lower fre-
quency. It can of course be argued that schoolchildren should be exposed
to a varied diet and encouraged to try new types of foods, which are
perfectly reasonable ambitions. However, if there is variation only in
what is served, but not in what is eaten, such priorities will not produce
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
7
the desired results. Therefore, the cooking skills of kitchen staff could be
of utmost importance in terms of developing recipes favoring children’s
sensory preferences, but also applying presentation techniques that
appeal to pupils (Liz Martins et al., 2020; Tuorila et al., 2015). Favoring
popular meals in school menus could of course increase the risk of menus
becoming unbalanced. However, removing for example stews from
menus containing sh, beans, or soft-cooked vegetables would not have
to mean that these types of ingredients should be excluded from school
menus, but they could be cooked or served in some other way instead
and thus support the dietary diversity of school menus. Popular meals
such as hamburgers, tacos, and meatballs could be prepared with
healthier ingredients, such as plant-based meat analogues shown to be
higher in dietary ber and lower in saturated fat in comparison to meat
references (Bryngelsson et al., 2022).
An ambition to serve more vegetarian meals of high acceptance
would result in pupils tending to generate less waste and eat less meat.
Based on the data and results of the present study, we estimate that in
approximately 20% of the Swedish school menus, a switch from un-
popular towards more popular meals could be made potentially result-
ing in up to a 2% reduction in overall food waste (420 tons/year).
According to a recent forecasting study on food waste levels in 2025 in
Swedish school catering, halving the 2016 level could be within reach by
2030 (Malefors et al., 2022a). However, the forecasting model also
indicated a possible plateau of 5 g/guest above the target. Therefore,
additional measures of different kinds are likely to be needed to ensure
reaching the food waste target but attention should also be paid to
ensuring high acceptance, and thus adequate intakes of schoolchildren.
Removing and modifying the most unpopular meals would be an easy
and quick measure to implement. Therefore, the Swedish public school
food service has great potential to continue with the trend of serving less
meat described by Sj¨
olund (2021) and the trend for lowering food waste
described by Malefors et al. (2022a). It would thereby contribute to
sustainable development through the actual catering operations and
through pupils acting as role models for the rest of society.
5. Conclusions
This study examined whether there is a goal conict between high
acceptance of school meals, reduced meat options, and decreased food
wastage. The results showed that school meals with high acceptance
were wasted to a lesser extent than meals with low acceptance, including
vegetarian options. These results contradict the common perception that
popular school meals drive plate waste, which catering staff should re-
gard as a popular myth. A vegetarian paradox was observed throughout
the interviews, with vegetarian options reported to be unpopular but
with several vegetarian options among the most popular choices. School
meals must meet multiple goals, but high pupil acceptance and adequate
intake of nutritious school meals must be the highest priorities. Once
these priorities are met, other goals, such as meeting environmental
targets on reduced food waste and reduced carbon footprint, can be met
in a meaningful way. There is no justication to keep on serving un-
popular meals in school catering and the focus should instead be shifted
to serving popular nutritious meals, including popular plant-based meal
options, when striving to develop more sustainable school meal
schemes.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Niina Sundin: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Data
curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Christopher Mal-
efors: Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Data curation,
Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing. Maja Danielsson:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Visualization, Data curation, Formal
analysis, Writing – review & editing. Marina Hardiyanti: Conceptual-
ization, Methodology, Visualization, Data curation, Formal analysis,
Writing – review & editing. Christine Persson Osowski: Formal anal-
ysis, Writing – review & editing. Mattias Eriksson: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Visualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review &
editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to inuence
the work reported in this paper.
Data Availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the H2020 project LOWINFOOD (Multi-
actor design of low-waste food value chains through the demonstration
of innovative solutions to reduce food loss and waste). LOWINFOOD is
funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
program under Grant Agreement no. 101000439. The views reected in
this article represent the professional views of the authors and do not
necessarily reect the views of the European Commission or other
LOWINFOOD project partners. The authors would like to thank all the
catering staff involved for their cooperation and contribution.
Appendix A. Interview guide
No. Interview question
1 What are the pupils’ favorite dishes?
2 What are the students’ least favorite dishes?
3 What food components in the lunch menu do the schoolchildren like the most? (Such as salad)
4 What dishes/ food components most often end up in the trash?
5 Do the students eat less or more when their favorite dishes are served?
6 Do students eat less or more when their least favorite dishes are served?
7 What kind of vegetarian dishes are served?
How popular are vegetarian dishes in comparison with other dishes? Is there a difference in popularity within vegetarian dishes?
Are vegetarian dishes wasted more or less than other dishes? How much more/less? Why is that?
8 Does your school measure food waste?
Does the school have any actions to lower food waste? If yes, what are these actions?
9 Do the students change their behavior when you remind them about lowering food waste?
Additional questions about the school
10 How old are the students at the school?
11 Is the food cooked here at the school?
12 Are there any questions from the kitchen staff?
N. Sundin et al.
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 190 (2023) 106822
8
Appendix B
Interview code Type of interview Type of school
001 Pilot interview Primary school
002 Pilot interview Primary school
003 Pilot interview Preschool
004 Pilot interview Primary school
005 Interview Upper secondary school
006 Interview Primary school
007 Interview Primary school
008 Interview Primary school
009 Interview Primary school
010 Interview Primary school
011 Interview Primary school
012 Interview Primary school
013 Interview Upper secondary school
014 Interview Primary school
015 Interview Primary school
016 Interview Primary school
017 Interview Primary school
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