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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1534068

Eating Green in Copenhagen: Organic Consumers' Path to Less Meat and Minimal Food Waste

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 2 Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 3 Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
  • 4 Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Masovian, Poland
  • 5 Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis | CREA, Rome, Lazio, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Unsustainable and unhealthy food consumption is contributing significantly to the global greenhouse gases and leads to severe health problems. The largest contributors are consumers in high-income countries, such as Denmark, with large shares of meat and high amounts of food waste. Taking Copenhagen (the capital) as a case, we aim to explore more sustainable and healthier dietary behaviours based on the organic food share in combination with dietary composition, food waste and attitudes towards change. This mixed-method study used quantitative data from an anonymous online survey and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. For statistical analysis, 279 adult survey participants were divided into three subgroups; "low"-with up to 25% organic food share, "medium"-26-75% organic food share and "high"-76-100% organic food share. This study found significant differences of food intake between the subgroups for fruits & vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grain cereals and meat. In those food categories, the share of respondents complying with the official dietary recommendations was higher for the "high" and "medium" than for the "low" organic subgroup. At the level of public procurement, meat was reduced to provide "a room for economic manoeuvre" due to higher organic price premiums. In conclusion, in Copenhagen we observed that an increased share of organic food comes along with other sustainable dietary behaviour, both at household and public kitchen level. Households appear motivated by societal momentum toward more sustainable diets. The public food procurement has largely been driven by politically determined goals. Further studies are needed to better understand how food systems can support the adoption of healthier, more sustainable diets -emphasizing increased plant-based foods and reduced food waste.

    Keywords: Sustainable food systems, dietary behavior, Organic, Food waste, SysOrg

    Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Matthiessen, Smed, Jensen, Średnicka-Tober, Rossi and Bügel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lea Matthiessen, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.