In Italy, more than one in two canteens does not offer any second course other than meat and fish during the week, while one in five establishments offers them 1 or 2 times at most. We are talking about a great variety of burgers, nuggets, meatloaves and so on and so forth, based on vegetable proteins, i.e. legumes, potatoes, vegetables. Without forgetting the versatility of soy with tofu and seitan, which have minimal environmental impact and numerous health benefits. In Tuscan university canteens, tofu and walnut salad is served, in Turin tofu marinated with soy sauce and vegetables, in Cagliari vegetables stuffed with tofu, in Rome tofu cutlet, while in Cosenza tofu onions and curry and grilled tofu. In Cosenza, Cagliari and Tuscany seitan and soy morsels are offered.
With first courses it goes a little better because somehow you can always find pasta with tomato sauce. Furthermore, 60% of the canteens always or almost always offer vegetable first courses, while only in 6% of cases they are not found even once a week, which means, in short, always offering ragù, amatriciana, carbonara, pasta with cream and cold cuts.
You might think “well but the side dishes are definitely vegetable”. In reality, only for one in four canteens do all the side dishes offered consist entirely of vegetables, i.e. they do not include butter, bacon or other animal sources. Considering that a canteen normally offers two or three side dishes, the daily choice for those who want to reduce the consumption of foods of animal origin is limited.
These numbers come from the Canteens for the Climate – Ranking of university catering report, and an analysis of the menus of Italian university canteens aimed at mapping the realities with a greater plant-based offer. The survey is conducted byessere animali ETS as part of the MenoPerPiù project and the LCA analysis, i.e. on the impact of each dish on the climate, is provided by the Demetra company. Of the 88 Italian university institutes, it was possible to analyze a maximum of 58 menus referring to 49 universities, since 39 institutions either did not respond or did not have a dedicated canteen.
Overall, only 12 canteens fall into the “green” bands, and Tuscany is the region that pays the most attention to these aspects: in the first places we find Pisa (Praticelli), Pisa (Le Piagge) and Siena (Sant’Agata) are the only three “at the forefront of change” followed by another nine “on the right track”, in band B. In fact, since November 2022, a new menu profoundly renewed: legumes have been eliminated from the side dishes, and introduced as a second course, since they are proteins, reducing the dishes with animal proteins.
The analysis examined two menus for each canteen, the autumn-winter one and the spring-summer one. As regards the first courses, in the cold months one canteen in four offers at least one vegetable first course a day, while in the cold months things are worse, with one in five canteens guaranteeing it.
As regards second courses, in the cold months only 14% of the menus examined guarantee a vegetable option every day, and another 7% this alternative 3-4 times a week. Half don’t have this option at all: either you eat meat and fish or nothing. In spring-summer the percentage of canteens that do not include any plant-based option rises to 60%.
Why should there be plant-based options in cafeterias?
For two reasons: because the impact of the production of foods of animal origin on the planet – production of CO2, consumption of water and soil – is much greater than that of plant-based foods (we’ll talk about it in the next episode). The environmental costs of a second course of meat or fish are between four and 10 times higher than those of a second course based on legumes.
Even those who are not particularly interested in the fate of the planet may still be intrigued by another topic: a diet with very little or no consumption of foods of animal origin is better for your health. We told it with data in hand in the first episodes of this investigation: What emerges from the reviews of the scientific literature of the last ten years is that following a balanced diet without animal products or with a very low intake of animal products brings greater benefits to the body than a omnivorous. There are risk factors that have been known for decades for the onset of diseases and which are intertwined with each other and self-sustaining: obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, tumors. The inflammatory state, hypercholesterolemia, high blood sugar, insulin problems, high blood pressure. Overall, the literature is now clear on the fact that those who follow veg diets have better results for these indicators, and therefore risk less.
An example. At the beginning of January 2024, Netflix published a 4-episode documentary entitled You Are What You Eat, which recounts a study published in the well-known scientific journal JAMA, which highlighted that eating vegan brings more health benefits than following an omnivorous diet, however healthy. The peculiarity of the research is that for the first time the sample was made up of pairs of homozygous twins – only 22 pairs, therefore relatively few – all omnivorous.
The ranking
The report contains a ranking of the canteens examined according to a series of indicators. Scores were assigned to the first courses, second courses and side dishes: the more varied and consistent the presence of foods of plant origin instead of animal ones, the higher the score.
The correct communication of the dishes offered was positively evaluated, enhancing the presence of additional indications aimed at clarifying the introduction of vegan and vegetarian dishes, and allergens. The publication of the menus online was also rewarded, with a view to transparency.
20 points were also allocated to the presence of one meatless day per week: a choice currently absent in Italian canteens, which abroad has proven to be a winning solution for effectively raising user awareness of the environmental impact of nutrition and to have a significant impact on the environmental and sustainability policies of both the university and the body responsible for the collective catering service, where present.
To know more.
Eating plant-based is better. Here’s what six years of scientific studies say
Why do hospitals continue to give patients ham and cheese against all scientific evidence?
Weaning, in Italy we have guidelines for plant-based nutrition. Here’s what they say
