González García, SaraEsteve Llorens, XavierGonzález García, RebecaGonzález Vázquez, LuzFeijoo Costa, GumersindoMoreira Vilar, María TeresaLeis Trabazo, María Rosaura2021-12-292021-12-292021Science of The Total Environment 770 (2021) 145342http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27301Menus served at public services can be considered as a good opportunity for consumers to demand a service that ensures healthy and environmentally friendly food. It is especially in the sector of nurseries and schools, where these demands make the most sense since they call for the protection of particularly vulnerable population: children. The purpose of this study is to analyze the biweekly menus served at a public Spanish nursery canteen considering the link with the two most recognized environmental indicators: the consumptive water footprint (WF) and the carbon footprint (CF). The WF and CF of the menus vary considerably between menus (619–1359 L·menu−1 and 0.75–2.95 kg CO2eq·menu−1). The assessment has identified non-dairy sources of protein and dairy-based products as the key food categories in all menus. Menus with more meat (mostly beef) and dairy products (mainly cheese) were associated with higher impacts. That is, the average impact of menus with beef is about 2 times greater than the one of all other menus. The distribution and cooking stages presented negligible contributions in terms of greenhouse gases emissions, mainly due to the consumption of local/regional products and low-energy intensive cooking techniques. The most important strategy for reducing environmental impacts is based on reducing the frequency of consumption of beef, so that poultry and lean pork are consumed alternately. This reduction should not compromise the necessary protein intake for toddlers. Attention should also be paid to afternoon snacks that are rich in cold meat and dairy products. Considering these issues, significant reductions in WF and CF indicators could be achieved, up to 550 L·menu−1 and 0.70 kg CO2eq·menu−1. Since eating habits introduced at an early stage are more likely to develop into adult behaviour, children canteen services are an excellent opportunity to promote healthy eating habits in children and their familieseng© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This work is licenced under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Carbon footprintConsumptive water footprintLife cycle assessmentMeal serviceSustainable dietjournal article10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.1453420048-9697open access