School kitchens in Poland will have to become more open to plant-based diets from September. The change, introduced by a regulation issued by the health minister, reflects the growing trend of reducing meat consumption. It will also require education, staff training and careful planning to ensure that children’s diets remain nutritionally balanced.
A plant-based diet may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, if it is poorly planned or implemented, it can lead to deficiencies in important nutrients. Experts stress that meat-free eating is not entirely a new trend in Poland, as it has deep roots in the country’s culinary tradition.
“From 1 September, schools in Poland will serve plant-based meals one day a week. In a way, this will affect all of us. It is worth learning more about this diet and the trend that is emerging,” Katarzyna Gubała, a plant-based cuisine expert, told Newseria.
The changes follow the so-called “school shop” regulation signed in mid-February by Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda. Under the new rules, from the beginning of the next school year, school canteens will be required to include a fully plant-based lunch based on legumes at least once a week.
In addition, collective catering facilities will be encouraged to serve water as the preferred drink, while soups prepared with vegetable stock must be served at least twice a week. The regulation also calls for greater attention to seasonal and locally sourced food, the possibility of replacing dairy products with plant-based alternatives, and a stronger emphasis on wholegrain cereal products.
Legumes as a new experience for many children
“This will certainly be interesting from the point of view of children, who will have a chance to try plant-based dishes, for example those based on beans, lentils or chickpeas. These are not always products that children eat every day, yet they are an important source of protein,” says Gubała.
“I often joke that this is how our grandparents used to eat: beans, potatoes and groats. That was how they satisfied their hunger, while meat was eaten once a week. We are bringing this approach back to schools. Children will have an opportunity to try something completely different. Whether they will want to try plant-based cuisine is another matter altogether.”
Winning over younger consumers’ taste preferences will not be the only challenge for school-canteen managers. Changing menus will also require staff training.
“This is why training is needed, especially for school canteens, catering managers, cooks and kitchen staff — so that dishes based on beans, chickpeas or lentils are prepared in a way that makes children want to try them and perhaps continue exploring this style of eating,” Gubała explains.
ProVeg launches support programme for schools
In response, the ProVeg Foundation is launching the “School on Plants” programme. It is intended to provide comprehensive support to schools and kindergartens introducing nutritious plant-based meals into everyday catering.
According to the foundation, the programme will offer support ranging from training for kitchen staff and catering managers to educational and communication materials, as well as activities aimed at entire school communities. ProVeg argues that this will allow schools to gradually introduce balanced plant-based menus in an accessible way, addressing the health, environmental and social needs of modern education.
Experts stress that the term “school community” must also include parents and guardians, as they are responsible for planning meals at home. The move towards meat-free meals is often initiated by teenagers themselves.
Research among Poles aged 15–29, published in the Meat Atlas, found that 44% of respondents said they were reducing their meat consumption, while 8% reported following a fully meat-free diet, either vegetarian or vegan. Among teenagers aged 15–17, 37% said they were eating less meat, while 7% said they did not eat meat at all.
However, experts emphasise that meat-free diets need to be properly balanced to provide all essential nutrients, particularly during periods of growth.
Health benefits and nutritional risks
A study conducted by researchers from UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health in London and the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw found that children following a vegan diet were, on average, 3 centimetres shorter, had 4–6% lower bone mineral content and were more than three times as likely to be deficient in vitamin B12 as children who did not exclude any food groups.
At the same time, the vegan children had 25% lower levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol, commonly referred to as “bad” cholesterol, and lower body-fat levels.
The study’s authors stressed that children following diets that exclude meat should pay particular attention to supplementation with vitamin B12 and vitamin D, which is often overlooked, in order to maximise the health benefits of plant-based diets.
“What is always important to me, and what I discuss during my training sessions, is that vegetarian and vegan diets are exclusion diets. We eliminate certain products and have to replace them with others. This needs to be monitored carefully,” says Gubała.
“We should not follow mono-diets that appear in trends — for example, focusing only on plant protein because it is fashionable at a particular moment, or concentrating solely on selected vitamins. With this type of exclusion diet, it is worth checking the weekly balance of what and how we eat. There is no single miracle diet. We also need to remember that every body is different. Legumes may work well for one person and less well for another.”
Plant-based food has deep roots in Polish cuisine
Menus based on meat-free dishes dominated traditional Polish cuisine, historians note, largely because of the religious importance of fasting and the large number of fast days in the calendar.
More recent periods in which plant-based cooking became a necessity rather than a choice included the Second World War and the era of communist Poland. Meat was scarce during the Polish People’s Republic, forcing households to seek substitutes.
“The trend of not eating meat has existed for a very long time. In Poland, I particularly notice this when I run cooking workshops with rural women’s associations,” Gubała says.
“I often base them on plant-based cuisine, although I do not always describe it directly in those terms. Instead, I present plant-based cooking as a healthy diet. I introduce beans, chickpeas or lentils into recipes, and we prepare dishes that suddenly turn out to be excellent. Then the participants say: ‘Oh, this is the taste of my childhood — this really is how food used to taste.’”
“The aim should be for people to eat more healthily and move towards a plant-based approach that nourishes their bodies, rather than relying mainly on highly processed ready-made products,” the plant-based cuisine expert concludes.
