35 UK Hospitals Cut Food Emissions 22% After Making Plant-Based Meals the Default

Thirty-five UK hospitals have cut their food-related carbon emissions by 22% after caterer Sodexo and healthcare charity Nuffield Health made plant-based meals the default option for patients.

Nuffield Health is the UK's largest healthcare charity. Working with behavior-change agency Greener by Default since early 2025, Sodexo UK & Ireland rewrote more than half of the patient menu across its 35 hospitals. Meat dishes fell from 24% of the menu to 18%, and vegan dishes rose from 34% to 41%. The grill bar was removed, bacon and ham were cut back or dropped altogether, and dairy-free options were expanded.

The results: average meat served per patient fell 14%, plant protein servings rose by nearly 50%, and the emissions saved are equivalent to more than 100,000 miles of driving. Crucially, patient satisfaction stayed high throughout. Sodexo says it was the first hospital caterer in the UK to take this approach to patient dining, which it describes as nudging diners toward plant-based options.

Dr. Davina Deniszczyc, charity and medical director at Nuffield Health, said:

Plant-based food is highly nutritious, helps prevent ill health and can play an important role in recovery. With our ambition to reduce our carbon footprint, this project gave us a unique opportunity to bring together both environmental and nutritional benefits.

She added, in comments reported by Green Queen: "Our pilot has shown what's possible, so we're not stopping there. Patients are ready for change, and our aim is to get to a 90% plant-based menu, all while maintaining high patient dining experience."

Part of the trick is in the naming. Amy Roach, UK healthcare manager at Greener by Default, explained that a dish called a "coeliac bowl" only gets picked by coeliacs, "But if you change the name to be a 'Thai peanut rice noodle bowl', then so many people are going to pick that dish, because it sounds simply delicious." (We'd order it.)

Matthew Hicks, head of non-clinical assurance at Nuffield Health, said the team was careful to keep patient choice: "When a patient's in hospital, there's very few things they can control, and what they choose off the menu is one of those key things." Meat is still available, it just isn't the default any more. The plant-first approach will now be extended to all hospitality and staff menus this spring.

Hospitals are exactly where this should be happening. The World Health Organization classifies processed meats like bacon and ham as a cause of cancer, and research has linked just 9 grams of processed meat a day to higher breast cancer risk. The American College of Cardiology has recommended plant protein for heart health, and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends a plant-based diet.

This follows New York City's public hospitals making plant-based meals the default for patients, which Sodexo and Greener by Default are now taking to hundreds more US hospitals. It's another institution putting plants first, like Germany's environment ministry banning meat at official functions. And it comes just weeks after 30 million people took part in Veganuary 2026, including NHS trusts serving hundreds of plant-based lunches to staff.

Healthier patients, healthier planet.