Eating & Drinking | FAQ
Questions & Answers
In order to be up-to-date all the time we regularly conduct satisfaction surveys in our dining halls. Because only with the help of our customers’ feedback we can further improve.
Through the survey we also would like to get to know what is important to our customers and what kind of questions they have. On the basis of our last survey we have set up the most important facts about the most frequently asked questions:
Each of our meals is prepared according to a calculated recipe. The serving size is based on the average daily nutritional requirement of an adult. As every canteen kitchen, Studierendenwerk works with standardized calculations. Therefore, it is not always possible to adjust the portions to individual requests.
It is stipulated by law that every student may eat one subsidized meal per day. Therefore, you can pay for a fellow student if he/she has forgotten his/her card but you will pay a guest fee on the second dish.
The service staff use standardized serving cutlery (ladles, tongs, etc.) of uniform size. As the meals are served manually the portion sizes can be slightly different.
The seasonal eight-week menus are written by our product management and our chefs. That is a real challenge considering that up to 13 000 dishes are served every day and many factors need to be reviewed: for example the capacity of the kettles, our suppliers’ offer, culinary trends as well as different tastes and eating habits of our customers.
Special training courses and trade fares keep us up-to-date. International dishes, e.g. Mediterranean or Asian cuisine, make the menu varied and create a mix of food styles. In order to develop and improve the menu we are happy to receive feedback from our customers.
The food is purchased on the basis of statistics and experience. Unforeseeable factors such as sudden changes of the university timetables or weather conditions can lead to more customers than expected. Of course, we always try our best to provide enough food for our customers without producing too much food waste at the same time.
According to our most recent survey, approximately nine percent of the dining hall customers are vegetarians and three percent are vegan. 21 percent are flexitarian. Therefore, we offer vegetarian variations of the wok dish as well as a veggie burger. In addition to the vegetable and salad buffet there is a vegetarian dish on the menu every day. For our vegan customers we offer vegan dishes to choose from (stew or 2,10 € dish) every day.
The cups are made from degradable cornstarch. Providing reusable glasses or cups at the soft drink dispensers creates high costs as many of them go missing and new ones need to be purchased regularly.
Yes, you can drink the hot and cold drinks you purchase from your own reusable cup or use our environmentally friendly MensaCup
Our disposable containers are made of "bagasse". This material is leftovers from the squeezing of sugar cane. Our bagasse food containers are compostable and biodegradable, so they can be disposed of in the organic waste garbage can.