90% of the Dishes Chosen Are Meat-Based. Does Healthy Eating at Work Have to Mean Giving Up Meat?
When reading about modern workplace nutrition, it can sometimes seem as though eating healthily requires a complete change in our usual habits. Many campaigns focus on reducing meat consumption, promoting plant-based diets or eliminating certain foods. However, data from Dussmann Polska Sp. z o.o.’s employee restaurants show that the reality is somewhat different. Around 90% of the dishes chosen are still meat-based.
We do not see this as a problem that needs to be eliminated. On the contrary, we believe it provides an important insight into what effective nutritional education in the workplace should look like.
If an employee comes to the canteen for lunch and feels like having a traditional meat-based meal, the role of modern food services should not be to take that choice away. A much more interesting question is: can we make the meal employees genuinely want to eat better balanced at the same time?
This is precisely the question that inspired us to develop the Mind Your Food & Do It Good concept.
It is not about changing people. It is about changing the way meals are composed.
We believe that lasting changes in eating habits rarely begin with restrictions. Simply removing a favourite dish from the menu does not automatically mean that an employee will choose a more balanced alternative. It may, however, mean that they look for one outside the canteen.
That is why, rather than eliminating popular dishes, we want to look more closely at their recipes and find ways to improve them. They can remain tasty, familiar and appealing while also containing more ingredients that support a varied and balanced diet.
This approach is particularly important in food services. An employee restaurant serves people with very different preferences, habits and needs. There is no single dietary model that works for everyone. Our task, therefore, is not so much to identify one right choice as to create a varied offering and an environment that encourages more informed decisions.
It is the overall composition of the meal that matters.
A well-composed meal is not about one “superfood” that is supposed to solve every problem. What matters is the whole picture: the proportions of ingredients, the variety of foods, the presence of vegetables, whole grains and legumes, and an appropriate amount of dietary fibre.
That is why, as part of Mind Your Food & Do It Good, we pay particular attention to the ingredients used in our recipes. Fibre is naturally found in vegetables, whole grains and legumes, and an adequate intake of fibre is one of the elements of a healthy diet. The World Health Organization recommends that adults consume at least 25 grams of dietary fibre per day, while also highlighting the importance of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and legumes in everyday eating.
It is not about adding one ingredient to every dish. It is about changing the way we think about recipes.
Meat and legumes? They can go together.
One example of this approach is meat blending, which involves combining meat with legumes such as lentils, beans or chickpeas.
This solution allows us to preserve the character and flavour of familiar dishes while increasing the proportion of plant-based ingredients. In practice, this could mean incorporating legumes into one-pot meals, soups or fillings.
The aim is not to hide anything from consumers. On the contrary, we want to show that making more conscious choices when composing a meal does not have to mean giving up the foods we know and enjoy.
What about that afternoon energy slump?
Many of us know the feeling of sleepiness after lunch. In the middle of the working day, it can become harder to concentrate, and the prospect of spending the next few hours at a desk or on a shift may not seem particularly appealing.
Of course, our wellbeing is influenced by many factors, including sleep duration, physical activity, stress and the nature of our work. We cannot promise that a single meal will eliminate fatigue altogether. However, we can consciously design meals that are appropriately balanced and provide a variety of nutrients.
This is where workplace nutrition can become one element of a broader approach to employee wellbeing.
Education instead of restrictions.
Mind Your Food & Do It Good was created with precisely this perspective in mind. We do not want to tell employees what they should not eat. We want to show them how to make informed choices and compose their meals more consciously.
That is why, every day, our Dussmann canteens feature a highlighted dish bearing the Mind Your Food & Do It Good logo. Its recipe has been developed in line with the campaign’s principles, and the logo itself serves as a simple signal and an invitation to discover a different way of composing a meal.
This is education through experience. No restrictions, no imposing a single dietary model and no need to give up favourite flavours.
Because changing our eating habits does not always have to begin with a major revolution. Sometimes, it starts with one consciously chosen lunch.
Mind Your Food – Good Nutrition Starts with Understanding People
At Dussmann Polska Sp. z o.o., we believe that the future of workplace nutrition does not lie in imposing a single way of eating on employees. It lies in creating varied, tasty and thoughtfully composed meals, while giving people the knowledge they need to make more informed decisions.
For us, Mind Your Food & Do It Good is much more than a label on a single menu item. It represents an approach to nutrition in which taste, quality, variety and education go hand in hand.
We do not prohibit. We do not impose. We educate through choice.
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