Optimized Nursing Home Dinner Menus in Norway with Environmental Impact Metrics

Norwegian nursing home dinner menus from a catering company in Eastern Norway, optimized using an AI tool. The dataset compares 12-week standard and optimized menus based on nutrient composition, menu quality, and environmental footprints. It was created by Gizem Aytekin-Sahin and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Benchmarking menu nutritional quality based on compliance with Norwegian Food-Based Dietary Guidelines.
• Analyzing environmental impact reductions based on reported carbon and water footprint changes.
• Comparing menu diversity based on the Elderly Nutrient Rich Food Index (E-NRF 7.3) and Dietary Diversity Score (DDS).
• Evaluating AI-based menu optimization strategies for institutional catering.

Strengths

• Includes specific environmental impact reductions: carbon footprint reduced by up to -42.34% and water footprint by up to -36.12%.
• Menus are evaluated against established national dietary guidelines (Norwegian FBDG) and validated nutritional indices.
• Data is openly available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The 48.9 KB file size suggests a limited scope, likely containing summary or aggregated data rather than detailed meal-level records.

Provenance

Source

Gizem Aytekin-Sahin via figshare.

Collection Method

Standard dinner menus from a catering company were imported and optimized using the EvoMeal AI tool, then evaluated for nutritional and environmental metrics.

Time Range

Covers a 12-week menu cycle.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 04:19:07; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Nursing homes served by a catering company in Eastern Norway.