The Drivers of the Nutritional Quality and Carbon Footprint of School Menus in the Paris Area

Public school food procurement has been identified as a key lever in the transition towards sustainable food systems. In this study, we assess the nutritional quality and the carbon footprint of 2020 school menus served in 101 municipalities in the inner suburbs of Paris. In this sample, school canteens menus meet an average 8.2/15 (min = 4, max = 14) adequacy score to the regulatory nutritional quality frequency criteria and their carbon footprint averages at 1.9 (min = 1.2, max = 2.6) kgCO2e/day. The nutritional and environmental qualities of canteen menus were not correlated with each other. In-house canteens have a significantly higher nutritional quality – 0.7 more points – and so do larger canteens. The carbon footprint significantly decreases with an increasing education level of the population and, for in-house canteens, it also decreases by 0.16 kgCO2e/day with a ten-fold increase in canteen size and by 0.0035 kgCO2e/day per percent of left-wing vote, breaking even with delegated canteens above 3500 enrolled children and 53% of left-wing vote respectively. The frequency of certified food (mean = 18%, min = 0%, max = 51%), a cornerstone of the 2018 national law aiming at more sustainable institutional catering, has no impact on our indicators of nutritional quality and carbon footprint. The substantial variations between canteens in both nutritional and environmental qualities suggests that there is room for improvement on both ends.