‘Significant’ food waste as Cambridge City Council serves up vegan options at civic event

A “significant” amount of food had to be thrown away at a Cambridge City Council event after people opted against eating the vegan choices.

The Remembrance civic event was used as a pilot by the city council of its plan to offer more plant-based food options.

Half of the food offered was plant-based, but a report to the environment and community scrutiny committee on January 19 said most of it had to be thrown away.

The council passed a motion in May last year agreeing to serve only plant-based food at catered council meetings and to offer at least one plant-based option at council-run events.

The move was aimed at trying to promote and normalise more climate-friendly diets.

Eighty people, of a range of ages, attended the November event.

Posters were displayed to raise awareness of why the city council was offering plant-based food, and the environmental benefits of eating less meat and dairy.

A report to last week’s meeting said: “The approach used at the event of procuring a food supplier to provide food and a social enterprise to serve food was very successful.

“The food provided was very fresh, good quality and visually appealing, and the social enterprise provided fantastic service during the event.

“However, there was extremely low uptake of plant-based food options. Under 10 per cent of people tried these options whilst the vegetarian options and meat/dairy options were all eaten.

“The general feedback from attendees was that plant-based options should be available as a part of the buffet for those that would like this choice, but most people preferred the non-plant-based options. Some people felt under pressure to eat what they wouldn’t usually choose.”

The result was “significant food waste”.

Officers recommended that the authority begin with offering 25 per cent of the food as plant-based at civic events, increasing in future years as long as people ate the food.

Cllr Olaf Hauk (Lib Dem, Trumpington) said he was “not surprised” that people had chosen the “familiar options”, but agreed with the idea of gradually increasing the proportion over time.

Cllr Hannah Copley (Green, Abbey) said it was important the city council did not “other” the plant-based food when presenting it to people at an event, as she said she did not want to “set it up to fail”. Cllr Copley suggested mixing the plant-based platters with the rest to allow people to try it.

Council officers said they would take the comments on board, but would have to consider allergies and cross contamination.

Cllr Cameron Holloway (Lab, Newnham) questioned how much of an impact the authority could expect to have, highlighting that it held only a few civic events annually. He also suggested noting what plant-based food was eaten to learn what people preferred.

Officers said it was hard to embed behaviour change and agreed it was a “valid question” whether the council could help encourage it through its events.

However, they highlighted that the authority was not acting in isolation.

One officer said: “More information is being shown in the media about delicious food you can make in a plant-based diet. We are contributing and amplifying that – we are not acting alone.”

[Read more: Vegan trends for 2023 and recipes to try for Veganuary, from Stem & Glory founder Louise Palmer-Masterton]

Cllr Richard Swift (Lab, West Chesterton) said: “I think the whole emphasis must be on making plant-based food delicious, making something so delicious people are not told to eat it, they choose to eat it.

“Talking about it in a dry academic way is almost missing the point. We cannot force people to eat food they do not want to eat.

“The task for us is to make it so good people want to eat it without being told.”

The committee agreed to take a phased approach offering plant-based food at future civic events, with 25 per cent of the food being plant-based options in 2023, increasing to 50 per cent in 2024, 75 per cent in 2025, and 100 per cent in 2026.

This increase was agreed as long as the majority of the plant-based food was eaten and it was the same cost as non-plant-based food.

Councillors also agreed that catering for the annual full council meeting in 2023 would be 75 per cent plant-based, increasing to 100 per cent in 2024, with the same caveats.