One in five people will become genuinely angry if the cafeteria cuts back on meat in favor of more vegetables.

You should eat much less meat and much more greens for the sake of our health, the climate, and nature.

Therefore, there is also a focus on what canteens across the country serve to the hundreds of thousands of Danes who are served food at their workplace every day.

The idea of more vegetables and legumes, however, does not receive applause and approving nods; in fact, most are against it, according to a new national survey from the University of Copenhagen.

”The resistance is surprisingly widespread. 40 percent of those who get food via their workplace would be annoyed, while 22 percent would even become angry. At the same time, about half believe that their freedom would be restricted. Many thus have an immediate attitude that sounds like: 'No, damn it, no one should lecture me on what I should eat,'” says Thomas Bøker Lund, first author of the study and associate professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen in a press release.

There are also large differences in emotional reactions across genders and industries. The idea of a more plant-based lunch evokes negative feelings among significantly more men than women. And where employees in industries with more manual work — including agriculture, industry, hotel/restaurants — have the highest emotional resistance, employees within especially education, culture, and arts, as well as the health, social, and care sectors, are the most positively inclined.

Conversely, 24 percent say they would be happy at the prospect of more plants in the canteen meals.

Readiness for green transition affects the climate footprint

Researchers, in collaboration with the canteen and catering company Jespers Torvekøkken, have looked more closely at 62 workplaces in the Capital Region to find out what the overall attitude is at each workplace, and what the level of readiness at the workplace means for the climate footprint of the lunch food.

Here, the results show that only 13 percent of workplaces are ready to make lunch greener, 42 percent are reluctant, while there is a mixed level of readiness at the remaining 45 percent of workplaces.

”We can also see a strong correlation between the level of readiness at the workplace and the type of food eaten at lunch. Traditional Danish dishes with meat as the main ingredient are very common at reluctant workplaces, while they are less common in organizations that are more open to change,” explains Mette Weinreich Hansen, co-author of the study and associate professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics.

This difference is also reflected in the climate footprint of the lunch food, where the forward-looking workplaces have 28 percent less climate impact than the less receptive ones.

Part of the resistance may be a spinal reflex

Although many do not want to be lectured about their meat consumption, and indicate that they would react with irritation and anger, other results from the survey raise questions about how deep this resistance really is.

”We see no clear trend that satisfaction with the canteen food is lower among employees at workplaces that serve plant-based food than among those at workplaces that do not — as long as they do not go beyond one vegetarian day a week. Therefore, it could suggest that part of the resistance may be a spinal reflex,” points out Thomas Bøker Lund.

For this reason, the researchers believe that canteen food can probably be nudged in a greener direction at many workplaces.

”We are currently investigating further how far one can go without causing persistent dissatisfaction,” says Thomas Bøker Lund.

”We should also not forget that the canteen food itself can make a difference in how people with immediate resistance react in practice,” emphasizes Mette Weinreich Hansen, and continues:

”If plant-based dishes are made tasty and inviting, and the critical canteen guest has a positive experience, it may possibly shift that person’s attitude. Therefore, the catering and kitchen industry has a central role in working to make green initiatives in canteen food a good culinary experience.”

Goals for your readiness, employers

To help workplaces measure how ready the organization really is to move towards greener options in the canteen, the researchers behind the study offer a so-called classification tool, which consists of a short questionnaire to be answered by employees, followed by a calculation of the workplace’s level of readiness.

”For management with the ambition to reduce the company’s climate impact, it is useful to have an idea of how employees feel about a green food transition. Our tool can assess where on the readiness scale the employees or different departments are,” says Thomas Bøker Lund and adds:

”Based on that, you can consider what degree of change makes sense to attempt. If you have a resistant workplace or department, it is not advisable to suddenly introduce a vegetarian day. That would likely provoke a strong negative response. You need to proceed more slowly.”

An instruction for using the classification tool can be read in chapter 5 of the report 'Plant-based canteen food at Danish workplaces – prevalence, readiness, and resistance,' which can be freely downloaded here.