Optimizing nursing home menus in Norway from a sustainability and nutritional perspective

Transforming food services into a more sustainable and healthier systems has become a crucial necessity today. This transformation plays an even more critical role in institutional settings, particularly for vulnerable populations. In nursing homes, where most older adults' daily meals are organized and provided, the nutritional adequacy, diversity, and environmental footprint of the menus directly influence residents' overall health and wellbeing. The current study aimed to comprehensively compare 12-week dinner menus (standard menus) and menus created using EvoMeal, an artificial intelligence-based menu planning tool (optimized menus) delivered to nursing homes by a catering company in Eastern Norway in terms of nutrient composition, menu quality, and environmental impact (carbon and water footprints).

A multi-objective optimization method was used to optimize the menus. Standard dinner menus from the catering company were collected and imported into EvoMeal. Existing meal contents were not altered; only menu combinations were rearranged. The menus were evaluated for compliance with the Norwegian Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG). In addition, menu quality was assessed using Elderly Nutrient Rich Food Index 7.3 (E-NRF 7.3), Dietary Diversity Score (DDS), and environmental sustainability using carbon footprint (kg CO₂-eq) and water footprint (m³/ton).

Optimized menus were found to better comply with the Norwegian FBDG. There were no statistically significant differences between the optimized and standard menus in terms of E-NRF 7.3 and DDS. Optimization of the 4-week standard menus resulted in carbon footprint changes ranging from -36.44 to -42.34%, and water footprint changes from -29.37 to -36.12%. In addition, optimization of the 12-week standard menus resulted in a carbon footprint reduction of -40.00%, and a water footprint reduction of -33.09%.

To our knowledge, no study has comprehensively focused on optimizing nursing home menus in terms of nutritional composition, menu quality, and environmental impact. EvoMeal offers an effective way to reduce the environmental impact of nursing home menus by optimizing menu combinations without altering meal contents. While standard menus in Norwegian nursing homes exhibit relatively high nutritional quality, an optimization approach may be a viable and cost-effective strategy, particularly for improving environmental sustainability.