How to apply Belgium's new nutrition guidelines in your restaurant's menu - with sustainability in mind
- Lise Vermeersch
- Jun 23
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Belgium's newly updated nutritional guidelines for 2025, published by the Hoge gezonheidsraad, are a valueable tool for promoting health in the population. They advise clear limits on processed meat, call for a strong focus on vegetables and recommend daily consumption of fruit, whole grains, legumes and dairy. Yet while the document is a step forward in many ways, it doesn't fully reflect today's sustainability priorities.
As a chef, restaurant owner, or caterer, you might wonder how to bring these guidelines to life in your menu - not just from a health point of view, but with the planet in mind. Because increasingly, your restaurant guests expect food that's good for them and good for the world. And fortunately, both often go hand in hand.
Let’s unpack what the guidelines cover, where they fall short — and how you can turn them into a future-ready menu.
Key Findings of the 2025 Guidelines
Belgium’s new guidelines emphasize:
Limiting processed meat (max. 30 g/week), and reducing red meat to no more than 300g/week.
Daily consumption of vegetables (≥ 300 g/day) and fruit (250–400 g/day).
Encouraging legumes and whole grains as primary sources of protein and fiber.
Recommending 250–500 ml of dairy per day, for calcium and protein.
At least 200 g of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans per week, including one portion of fatty fish.
Nutritionally sound? Yes. But environmentally?
Bridging the gap: from health to sustainability
Two of the biggest gaps in the new guidelines? Their continued promotion of dairy and fish. While both provide nutrients like calcium, protein, and omega 3-s, they also carry a heavy environmental footprint. Let's take a closer look.
Daily dairy: not so climate-friendly
The guidelines recommend 250 to 500 ml of dairy per day — but dairy is one of the biggest contributors to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
The good news? Fortified plant-based drinks like soy milk can match the calcium content of cow's milk, often with a much lower carbon footprint, water footprint and need for land. Most fortified soy drinks in Belgium contain about 120 mg of calcium per 100 ml - on par with dairy. Milk alternatives from split peas often even contain thes numbers of protein without fortification.
What's more, protein isn't a concern. Not only soy, but most of the plant-based alternatives contain all essential amino acids. Calcium and protein needs are easily met through leafy greens, tofu, nuts, seeds and legumes.
Recent studies (such as Siu et al., 2023) confirm that replacing cow's milk with soy drink is not only safe, but often preferable - both nutritionally and environmentally.
200 g of fish: a missed opportunity
The gudieline also recommends at least 200 grams of fish weekly - including fatty fish. But this overlooks the environmental costs: overfishing, biodiversity loss and contamination are still major issues in the global seafood sector.
Plant-based alternatives like algae oil, flaxseeds, walnuts, and rapeseed oil provide omega-3s without the ecological and ethical downside.*
A historical note: meat hasn't always been central to Belgian cuisine
The new guidelines recommend reducing red meat to a maximum of 300 grams per week - better than before, but still generous from an ecological standpoint. And this allowance is sometimes defended under the guise of "tradition". But that idea deserves a bit of nuance.
As a culinary historian, Maïka De Keyzer, pointed out in a recent VRT interview, that daily meat consumption only became widespread in Belgium after WWII, fueled by post-war prosperity and industrial farming. For most of our culinary history, Belgian diets were modest, seasonal and plant-based - built around grains, root vegetables and pulses. It's not abandoning culture - it's bringing it home.
What can you do as a chef or sustainability manager?
Aligning your menu with health and sustainability doesn't require big changes. A few deliberate choices can make a meaningful difference.
Here’s how to make it real in your kitchen:
Cut back animal products even further than the guidelines: halve red meat portions, phase out processed meats, and other fish-free alternatives rich in plant-based omega-3s like algae oil, flaxseeds, walnuts, and rapeseed oil.
Make plant-based dairy alternatives standard, not just available on request.
Design meals that celebrate vegetables and legumes, not just include them.
Draw from local food traditions - think buckwheat, barley, fermented veg and peasant dishes - and give them a modern twist.
Source ingredients locally and seasonally to reduce impact and highlight fresheness.
Communicate your choices clearly: add a menu note or train staff to explain why your lasagna uses lentils or why oat milk is the default. It builds trust - and loyalty.
Final thought
The new Belgian guidelines give us a valuable starting point for promoting healthier diets. But in 2025, health alone isn't enough. Our food choices also shape the climate, biodiversity, and resilience of our food systems. By going one step further than the official advice - reducing animal products, embracing plant alternatives and telling the story behind your choices - you can lead the way toward a more sustainable and nourishing food culture.
And perhaps more than any official document, it’s those choices on your menu that will shape how we eat tomorrow.
Interested in learning how your kitchen can lead the way? Ecotarian can support you, let's get in touch!
Sources:
Belgium’s 2025 Guidelines
Hoge Gezondheidsraad. Voedingsaanbevelingen voor België - Update 2025 (HGR 9805–9807)
➤ Link
Clark et al., 2022
University of Oxford. The environmental impact of 57,000 multi-ingredient processed foods revealed for the first time.
➤ Link
VRT NWS – Historisch perspectief op vleesconsumptie
VRT NWS. Waarom Belgen vroeger nauwelijks vlees aten – en wat we daarvan kunnen leren
➤ Link
Siu et al., 2023
Health implications of replacing dairy milk with fortified plant-based alternatives
➤ PubMed
Alger et al., 2024
Soymilk and bone health in children: a longitudinal study
➤ PubMed
FAO, 2013
Milk and dairy products in human nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Calcium and Milk – The Nutrition Source
NIH – Lactose Intolerance Data
WHO Complementary Feeding Guidelines
*To note here that algae contain omega 3 directly, while rapeseed for example contains alpha-linolenic acid, which is an omega 3 precursor.
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