{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T05:22:21Z","timestamp":1788153741774,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788134400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit","award":["TSA-2024-13658"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSA-2024-13658"]}]},{"award":["TSA-2024-13658"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSA-2024-13658"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/047g8vk19","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Foods"],"abstract":"<jats:p>University canteen menus are increasingly evaluated for their environmental impacts, yet sustainability strategies often focus on single-food substitutions rather than on overall meal structure. This study investigated whether environmental improvements are better achieved through main-dish substitution or through redesigning menu architecture while maintaining nutritional efficiency. An LCA-based dataset of university canteen meals was restructured into a fixed four-course architecture, and four representative scenarios were evaluated for energy, protein, carbon, and water footprints, as well as the protein-adjusted carbon footprint. This was followed by a Monte Carlo simulation (10,000 iterations per scenario) using the observed annual menu dataset. Main-dish substitution reduced the carbon footprint by 27.3% (from 2.355 to 1.713 kg CO2e) but decreased protein by 24.9% and increased the water footprint by 12.5%. Restructuring the side and complementary dishes instead reduced the carbon footprint by 23.1% and the water footprint by 67.5% while preserving protein content. Monte Carlo simulation confirmed the strongest profile for the restructuring scenario, with the lowest median protein-adjusted carbon footprint (0.069 kg CO2e\/g protein) and the highest probabilities of outperforming the reference menu in carbon footprint (86.2%), water footprint (76.9%), and protein-adjusted carbon footprint (81.3%). These findings suggest that optimizing menu architecture, not main-dish substitution alone, offers a practical strategy for reducing environmental burden while maintaining nutritional efficiency in institutional food services.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/foods15173079","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T04:24:03Z","timestamp":1788150243000},"page":"3079","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Balancing Environmental Footprints and Nutritional Efficiency in University Canteen Menus: A Scenario-Based Life Cycle Assessment of Menu Architecture"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4162-0922","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Merve","family":"\u00c7apa\u015f","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Erciyes University, Melikgazi, 38039 Kayseri, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"\u015e\u00fckr\u00fc Taner","family":"Azg\u0131n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Erciyes University, Melikgazi, 38039 Kayseri, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"447","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(18)31788-4","article-title":"Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT\u2013Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems","volume":"393","author":"Willett","year":"2019","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"198","DOI":"10.1038\/s43016-021-00225-9","article-title":"Food Systems Are Responsible for a Third of Global Anthropogenic GHG Emissions","volume":"2","author":"Crippa","year":"2021","journal-title":"Nat. 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