Copenhagen nursing homes told climate food guidelines are not mandatory

Copenhagen’s mayor for health and care has written to the city’s roughly 40 nursing homes to clarify that climate requirements in the municipality’s food and meal strategy are advisory, not compulsory, Danish broadcaster DR reports, citing newspaper Berlingske.

The letter, sent on Sunday by Jens-Kristian Lütken of the liberal Venstre party, came after weeks of political debate about how climate-friendly meals at nursing homes must be. Lütken told Berlingske that residents who want meat should get it, and in generous portions.

“You could have got the impression that you absolutely must meet the climate requirements in the municipality’s food and meal strategy. But that is simply not the case. If residents want to eat something, for example meat, then they should have it — and there should be plenty of it,” Lütken said.

Copenhagen’s food and meal strategy states that food served at nursing homes should be organic and climate-friendly, a requirement that has sparked a political dispute over what elderly residents are allowed to eat. Lütken emphasised that the strategy is guidance only.

“When you do not have very long left, what matters is getting something familiar, something you enjoy,” he said.

Asked how relaxing the climate requirements squares with Copenhagen’s ambitions as a green city, Lütken suggested the burden should fall elsewhere: “There are others who will have to eat a bit more legumes to meet these climate targets. It should not be the elderly, who do not eat very much as it is.”

Climate-friendly food can still be good food

Birgitte Kehler Hols, group leader for the Alternativet party, welcomed the clarification that the strategy is advisory but rejected the premise that a climate-friendly menu means poor food.

“You can absolutely make nutritious, delicious, appetising food that is also climate-friendly — these are not opposites,” she said.

Kehler Hols argued that budget pressures are a key factor in what nursing homes end up serving, pointing to rising food prices and the additional cost of the strategy’s organic food requirements. “I think it is a political task to look at whether there is enough money,” she said.

A broader proposal to formally exempt nursing homes from the climate requirements in the meal strategy has been put forward by a cross-party group comprising the Conservatives, the Social Democrats, Venstre, Liberal Alliance, and the Danish People’s Party. The proposal states that the strategy has in practice limited nursing homes’ ability to tailor food to individual residents.

The city administration has been asked to conduct a survey of what elderly residents think about and want from their meals. The matter is due to be considered after the summer recess.