Dish swap across a weekly menu can deliver health and sustainability gains

A weekly canteen menu comprising 15 dishes (3 dishes × 5 days) has 1.4 million unique configurations. Here food choice was monitored over four weeks ( ~ 5,000 meals) in a UK university residence. Without students noticing, mathematically optimized menus achieved 30.7% and 6.3% reductions in carbon footprint and saturated fatty acid intake, respectively. This demonstrates the potential of strategic menu manipulation to benefit health and the environment, without the need for recipe changes. Menu manipulation is a promising strategy to increase environmental and health benefits of food choices. Drawing on data from a UK university residence, this study illustrates such potential.