Taste shapes support for climate-friendly school meals
Students in a new study were neither clearly positive nor negative about more climate-friendly school meals. Whether the food tasted good, was filling and felt familiar played an important role. Students were somewhat more positive about reducing the amount of meat in recipes than about having more all-vegetarian days.
A recent study in Lund, Sweden, examined students' attitudes toward climate-friendly school meals. The research, conducted by the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, involved 1,268 students in grades 4-9 across six schools. Researchers also interviewed 20 students at two schools.
The findings, published in the journal Appetite, revealed that a student's opinion on climate-friendly meals was influenced by factors such as taste, satiety, and familiarity. More meat in recipes was preferred over more all-vegetarian days. Positive attitudes toward climate-friendly meals were most strongly linked to considering climate a vital factor in food choices and eating vegetarian meals at school more frequently.
Interestingly, even students with negative attitudes toward climate-friendly meals acknowledged the higher climate impact of red meat. The study's researchers noted that awareness of this issue was only weakly associated with students' attitudes.
Erik André, a doctoral student at Chalmers University of Technology, explained that the study's results suggest that modifying school meal recipes to reduce high-carbon ingredients while maintaining student satisfaction could be an effective approach to lowering climate impact.
Monica Hunsberger, an associate professor of public health at the University of Gothenburg, emphasized that while students are aware of food's climate footprint, other factors like taste and familiarity become more important when deciding what to eat. The researchers found that around 40% of students were neutral about climate-friendly school meals, with roughly equal proportions of positive and negative views. Reducing meat in recipes was slightly more acceptable than having more all-vegetarian days.
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