Healthier and sustainable food at work and beyond: A study of user and organisational practices in a Norwegian municipal canteen

Abstract

This paper applies a practice-theoretical perspective to the study of user and organisational practices in a municipal canteen engaged in the promotion of healthy and sustainable food in Oslo. The city council defines sustainable and healthy food in terms of less meat, increased consumption of fruit, vegetables, pulses and seasonal food, and reduced food waste. It is estimated that this type of diet, together with cutting food waste, could result in a 20–25 % reduction in emissions from food consumption in Norwegian public institutions (van Oort et al., 2021). Additionally, dietary changes could, if spilled over, have a significant impact on total national emissions, since food is the third-largest emission category in Norwegian households (Steen-Olsen et al., 2016). The single action considered to have the greatest impact is reducing the consumption of meat and dairy. These products make up 80 % of total household food emissions in Norway, and red meat alone accounts for 35 % (van Oort et al., 2021). Reducing the consumption of red and processed meat is also a matter of public health, considering the positive relationship between processed red meat and some forms of cancer