by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Perhaps you work in food service in a restaurant, a hospital, a school cafeteria, a college or university, or elsewhere and you’d like to encourage your customers to choose more vegan dishes. Or, maybe you are a student or a consumer who would like to work with a food service establishment in your community to encourage them to develop and promote more vegan items. The non-profit World Resources Institute has developed a free 92-page resource, The Food Service Playbook for Promoting Sustainable Food Choices, which offers many helpful ideas for behavior change techniques to promote healthy, sustainable food choices. The resource is not vegan; its goal is to encourage diners to choose more plant-rich dishes and less meat when dining out. Many of its ideas can be used as is or adapted to promote vegan dishes.

The playbook includes 90 behavior change techniques that can be used to influence diners’ food choices. Of these, eighteen are identified as “priority” techniques; these have been shown to be effective and feasible. An additional 34 techniques are “promising” – they have also been shown to be effective but may have a lower impact or be less feasible to implement (1).

The “priority” techniques include:

• Improve the appearance of plant-rich dishes (e.g., arrangements, color, garnishes, balance)
• Increase the ratio of plant-rich to meat-rich dishes available
• Add environmental footprint labels to menus
• Use language on menus to selectively recommend plant-rich dishes (e.g., chef’s special, dish of the day)
• Train chefs and food preparation staff how to cook and prepare appealing plant-rich dishes
• Publicize the environmental benefits of plant-rich dishes using marketing materials (e.g., posters, social media, leaflets, table tents, or television screens)
• Run cross-product promotions (e.g. meal deals, set menus) on plant-rich dishes and selected drinks, side dishes, or desserts

These, and other ideas will make it more likely that consumers will choose the vegan items in preference to nonvegan dishes – a win for health, the environment, and the animals.

Reference

1. Pollicino D, Blondin S, Attwood S. The food service playbook for promoting sustainable food choices. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/research/food-service-playbook-promoting-sustainable-food-choices. 2024.

To read more about vegan food service see:

Food Service Update

Promoting Plant-based Menu Items Using Environmental Messages

Sustainable Food Choices Lecture

Veganizing Your Food Service