How Sustainable Are Hospital Menus in the United Kingdom? Identifying Untapped Potential Based on a Novel Scoring System for Plant-Based Provisions

IF 2.5 3区医学 Q3 NUTRITION & DIETETICS Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics Pub Date : 2025-02-03 DOI:10.1111/jhn.70019

Isabelle Sadler, Alexander Bauer, Shireen Kassam

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Abstract

Background

Adopting plant-forward diets is essential for achieving climate targets. As the second-largest provider of public sector meals in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) can significantly reduce its environmental impact by transitioning to plant-forward menus, contributing to its goal of being a net-zero healthcare service by 2045. This study evaluates the extent to which NHS hospitals currently align with sustainable practices by assessing the plant-forward nature of in-patient menus.

Methods

Green Plans from 40 hospital trusts were analysed to assess commitment to plant-forward, lower-emission menus. Freedom of Information requests were sent to 50 NHS trusts, and 36 menus from the spring/summer season of 2024 were analysed. A novel scoring system was developed to assess the hospital menus, with subscores reflecting the availability of plant-based meals, ruminant-meat meals, and menu strategies to encourage plant-forward choices.

Results

Green Plans showed limited commitment to increasing plant-based food options. Hospital menus scored poorly overall (average score of 20/100, range: 9–38). The lowest subscores were observed in the provision of fully plant-based meals and nudging techniques. The provision of ruminant meat varied (subscore range: 0–100) and all hospitals included processed meat on their menu. Hospitals with outsourced catering scored higher than those with in-house catering.

Conclusion

Despite national recommendations to shift towards plant-forward diets, NHS hospitals currently show little commitment and provide limited offerings in this regard. The novel scoring system offers a practical framework for monitoring progress and guiding hospitals towards environmentally sustainable, plant-forward menus.

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英国医院菜单的可持续性如何？基于植物性食品新评分系统的未开发潜力识别。

背景：采用植物性饮食对于实现气候目标至关重要。作为英国第二大公共部门膳食供应商，英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）可以通过向植物性菜单过渡来显著减少对环境的影响，从而为其到2045年实现净零医疗服务的目标做出贡献。本研究通过评估住院病人菜单的植物性来评估NHS医院目前与可持续实践相一致的程度。方法：分析了来自40家医院信托的绿色计划，以评估对植物前进，低排放菜单的承诺。信息自由的要求被发送给50个NHS信托机构，并分析了2024年春夏的36份菜单。开发了一种新的评分系统来评估医院的菜单，其分值反映了植物性膳食、反刍动物肉类膳食的可用性，以及鼓励植物性选择的菜单策略。结果：绿色计划对增加植物性食物选择的承诺有限。医院菜单总体得分很低（平均得分20/100，范围：9-38）。在提供全植物性膳食和轻推技术时，观察到最低的分值。反刍动物肉的供应各不相同（分值范围：0-100），所有医院的菜单上都包括加工肉类。外包餐饮服务的医院得分高于内部餐饮服务的医院。结论：尽管国家建议转向植物性饮食，但NHS医院目前在这方面几乎没有承诺，提供的服务也有限。这个新颖的评分系统提供了一个实用的框架，用于监测进展，并指导医院朝着环境可持续、植物向前的方向发展。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 医学-营养学

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

15.20%

发文量

133

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics is an international peer-reviewed journal publishing papers in applied nutrition and dietetics. Papers are therefore welcomed on: - Clinical nutrition and the practice of therapeutic dietetics - Clinical and professional guidelines - Public health nutrition and nutritional epidemiology - Dietary surveys and dietary assessment methodology - Health promotion and intervention studies and their effectiveness - Obesity, weight control and body composition - Research on psychological determinants of healthy and unhealthy eating behaviour. Focus can for example be on attitudes, brain correlates of food reward processing, social influences, impulsivity, cognitive control, cognitive processes, dieting, psychological treatments. - Appetite, Food intake and nutritional status - Nutrigenomics and molecular nutrition - The journal does not publish animal research The journal is published in an online-only format. No printed issue of this title will be produced but authors will still be able to order offprints of their own articles.