The Food Service sector has an important role to facilitate the transition to appealing and sustainable diets. This means offering more plant-rich foods, which have far lower greenhouse gas emissions than animal-based products – and getting diners to choose them.   

The World Resources Institute has published a “Food Service Playbook”: a science-backed guide that contains 90 behaviour change techniques that can influence diners’ choices. These techniques are organised into six categories. Here, we show you the most effective techniques from each category.  

The WRI highlight 18 “priority” techniques that should be implemented by the food sector without hesitation. We briefly describe these techniques in the table below. 

To find out more about the “Food Service Playbook” and the priority techniques to help diners choose plant-rich foods, please click here.   

A key recommendation from the Playbook: rather than describing a dish as “vegan” or “meat-free”, mention what makes it really appealing to eat. Think of the food’s taste and texture (“spicy”, “crunchy”), social eating situations (“Pub favourite”, “BBQ style”), and the pleasure of eating it (“delicious”). Looking for inspiration? Check out our food names database here, or our list of example descriptions here.