11 Ways Restaurants Can Make Healthy, Sustainable Foods The Easy Choice

The health of this planet is intricately connected with the health of its people – and our current food systems are failing both. Over 40% of the world’s population is unable to afford healthy food, and one in five deaths are linked to poor diet. While 783 million people worldwide are affected by hunger, over 2.6 billion people are considered overweight or obese. At the same time, the way in which we produce and consume food is one of the biggest causes of the climate crisis, responsible for around one-third of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

We urgently need a shift in how we produce, choose and consume our food. We need food systems that no longer contribute to the climate crisis and instead work to restore the damage we’ve already caused to our natural world. At the same time, we need to ensure that the world’s growing population is not just fed, but also adequately nourished.

Why should the hospitality sector support healthy, sustainable diets?

As phrased in the 2023 WWF Livewell report, “We must dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and our impact on the natural world – and adopting healthy, sustainable diets will be needed to achieve this.”

The global hospitality sector has a pivotal part to play in galvanising the much-needed shift to healthy, sustainable diets. From restaurants, hotels, bars and cafés to workplaces, universities and other educational facilities, this sector is responsible for feeding millions of people every day. 

Since we know that the food environment holds huge influence over customer dining choices, these businesses have a significant ability to change how people eat. Because restaurants play a role in creating food trends, they can also shape social norms in the longer term, which can then filter down to inform the food choices consumers make when eating at home. 

This is why ‘Feed People Well” is one of the 10 key focus areas of the Food Made Good Framework. We encourage restaurants to design menus in line with scientific or public health guidelines and to promote healthier menu choices to diners – and there are advantages to doing so. Not only can your business enjoy the reputational benefits of offering healthy, sustainable meals, but this can also help you meet a growing demand for healthy food that is also creative and delicious, with staff expertise and a supply chain that support this.

What does a healthy, sustainable diet look like? 

The ideal global dietary pattern defined by the EAT-Lancet Commission is a flexible one that consists largely of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and unsaturated oils; includes a low to moderate amount of seafood and poultry; and includes minimal quantities of red meat, processed meat, added sugar, refined grains and starchy vegetables. 

While focused primarily on European diets, the research from SAPEA released in 2023 reflects the same priorities, recommending a shift towards plant-based eating that is rich in vegetables, fruits, wholegrains and pulses. “Our diets should be limited in red meat, processed meat, salt, added sugar, and high-fat animal products, while fish and seafood should be sourced from sustainably managed stocks.” 

Widespread global adoption of this pattern of eating would provide major health benefits and significantly reduce the rates of preventable and premature mortality across populations. 

How can restaurants encourage healthy, sustainable choices?

We’ve previously discussed the power of using menu placement and language to influence customer food choices. In this article, we’ll explore some other ways your restaurant can encourage more people to make healthier, more sustainable food choices, in your policies and on your menu itself.

As with all sustainability work, it’s critical that the impetus for encouraging healthy diets comes from the top of the organisation and filters down through every level. Management must become leaders when it comes to setting clear targets, defining who is responsible for these targets and putting action plans and measurable goals in place to drive accountability.

Here are 11 ways to ensure you’re making healthy, sustainable foods the easy choice for your customers.

1. Define healthy and sustainable
2. Choose your terminology
3. Set clear KPIs
4. Train your staff
5. Include more meat-free options
6. Incorporate more nutritious ingredients
7. Make sustainable swaps
8. Rework familiar favourites
9. Choose your language carefully
10. Use simple nudges
11. Talk about it!

Let's dig into greater detail...

1. Define ‘healthy and sustainable’

In order to make a commitment to supporting healthy, sustainable diets, it’s important to nail down definitions of what these terms mean within the remit of your business. Make sure these are rooted in scientific research such as the EAT-Lancet report or similar guidance specific to your region. (For example, the WWF’s ‘Eating For Net Zero’ report outlines what healthy, sustainable diets should look like in the UK.)

2. Choose your terminology

As the ‘Pulling the Levers’ guide observes, there is a myriad of relevant terms often used interchangeably: plant-based, plant-forward, plant-rich, plant-centric, flexitarian, vegetarian, vegan, etc. Choose exactly which terms you will use and define them very clearly in your written documentation. These definitions should be clear and easy to understand. Use the same terms across internal and external messaging and include them in staff training so that your employees understand exactly what each one means. 

3. Set clear KPIs

Having goals in place is key to success for any sustainability endeavour. These should be clear, measurable and ambitious (but achievable). In this case, you might look at procurement goals (for example, reducing the amount of meat you buy or even eliminating red meat altogether), menu design goals (e.g., 50% of menu options will be plant-based) or dish design goals (e.g., every plate served will contain at least 50% vegetables). Don’t forget to put a timeline in place for these goals to be achieved!

One suggestion is to join the #50by25 campaign, which invites restaurants to go 50% plant-based by December 2025. Foodservice businesses of any size can sign up for free to receive updates, inspiration and suggestions alongside professional chef demos and interviews, all designed to help operators and their teams learn from those who have already walked the path to more sustainable menus. Three-star FMG accredited business wagamama have been 50% plant-based since 2021! You can sign up here or contact Emma Osborne at emma@50by25.org for more information.  

4. Train your staff

Integrating this as a core value also means that both front- and back-of house teams need sufficient and specific training in what constitutes a healthy, sustainable meal. Procurement and kitchen teams need to understand how this will affect menu design, preparation methods, portion control and ordering. Front-of-house staff need the knowledge and confidence to talk about your values and menu options with customers.

5. Include more meat-free options

Research shows that including a higher number of plant-based dishes on a menu increases the likelihood of people choosing these options, without the need to remove meat from the menu entirely. One series of experiments at Cambridge University showed that doubling the availability of vegetarian dishes increased sales of these dishes by 40-80%, especially among meat eaters – all without a negative effect on overall sales. Set clear targets for the percentage of menu options that contain no or minimal amounts of animal-sourced foods. 

6. Incorporate more nutritious ingredients

Across your menu – in meat-, fish- and plant-based dishes – simply aim to add more nutritious ingredients. This could mean adding more fruits, vegetables, pulses, nuts or wholegrains in terms of volume and/or ensuring they make up a greater proportion of each plate; including a wider variety of plant foods, as we know variety in our diets is beneficial for gut health; choosing whole plant proteins instead of ultra-processed options; or serving more fermented foods.

7. Make sustainable swaps

Where you do choose to serve meat and fish, can you swap out some ingredients for more sustainable options? For example, mussels and other bivalves have no negative impacts on the environment but are still rich in protein, vitamins and minerals; small fish like sardines offer those all-important healthy fats, but are far more sustainable than large predators like salmon or tuna. Could you reduce your red meat offering in favour of less carbon- and water-intensive options like chicken – which is also a healthier protein choice? Would serving less meat allow you to choose higher welfare, free range and/or organic options for the meat you do order? Every swap of this nature makes a difference.

8. Rework familiar favourites

While creativity is important, many customers – especially those who may be making their first foray into meat-free dining – will respond to flavours and combinations they already know, and many familiar dishes can be re-imagined to include more plants and less (or no) meat. To bring less adventurous eaters on board, make sure at least one of your options is a plant-based twist on something that’s already recognisable. 

9. Choose your language carefully

How you describe a dish makes a big difference to customer uptake. Use descriptors that make your healthy, sustainable options sound irresistible; in practice, this often means steering away from restrictive language that focuses on what’s ‘missing’ (like ‘meat-free’, ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’, ‘low-fat’ or even the word ‘healthy’ itself) and instead highlights the provenance and sensory aspects of the dish. Is it from a local farm, or inspired by Thai flavours? Is it creamy, spicy, gooey or crisp? The WRI has a complete list of research-based recommended terminology from which you can pull. You can also check out our previous article here, which took a deeper dive into the power of language on menus.

10.  Use simple nudges

Menu design has a huge influence over consumer choices, so it’s worth leveraging this in your quest to encourage healthy eating. One study showed a huge 85% of participants choosing a vegetarian dish as a result of an incredibly simple ‘nudge’ strategy — all that was required was a box that helped this option stand out. 

11. Talk about it!

Let your customers know why providing healthy, sustainable options is important to your business, both in terms of nourishing your guests and protecting our planet. Use your website and/or social media to explain the overlap between healthy diets and sustainable ones and to highlight the work you’ve done in incorporating this knowledge into how you design your menu. 

Ready to incorporate a more holistic approach to sustainability into your restaurant operations (and enjoy the benefits of doing so)? Drop us a line at standard@thesra.org to find out what the Food Made Good Standard can do for your business.