How to eat well

Whether you're on campus, in the CROUS catering outlets or at home, there's always a way to eat well without having to break the bank.

Crous Resto': low prices, high quality

There is a wide range available including sit-down lunches, takeaway food or snacks between lectures, close to your place of study. The meals are varied and you can choose from different formulas. There are brasserie kiosks, crêperies and salad bars. You can just buy a yoghurt or a dessert, for breakfast or a snack. Crous Resto' also features:

  • Themed weeks for discovering local or foreign specialities, on a culinary world tour
  • Events such as Taste Week, the Gastronomy Festival, Chinese New Year, and tastings organised with our partners.

And don't forget: the Resto'U and all the catering outlets managed by the CROUS are accessible to all students, not only grant-funded students!

Eating well at home: tips and tricks 

Yuka - Product analysis

Yuka is an app that uses the Nutriscore system, which awards a nutritional quality index to food products. The score is assessed on the basis of data collected totally independently on https://world.openfoodfacts.org/.

Basically, when you do your shopping, you take out your smartphone, scan the barcode of a product and you get:

  • a score out of 100
  • a colour index showing you the product quality: Bad / Mediocre / Good / Excellent

The product sheet doesn't just give you a score.

It tells you the information that has contributed to the score: level of fat, sugar, salt and the names of the additives, which are classified as follows:

  • harmful
  • no impact
  • doubtful, if their composition cannot be determined

Finally, if the product gets a "bad" or "mediocre" score, the app offers suggestions directing you to products of better quality.

How to eat responsibly

Sustainable development is everyone's business and 18-25 year-olds have placed it at the centre of their concerns.

The CROUS and responsible food

The CROUS are committed to a nutritional and environmental approach, through their partnership with the Bleu Blanc Cœur association, aimed at sustainable, responsible consumption.

Many CROUS have also developed actions delivered with the help of volunteer students, as it's easier to get the message heard when it comes from other students. The Rennes-Brittany CROUS, for example, noticed that every time a composter was installed for students living in university residences, other students wanted to use it even if they weren't living in the same place. The students were given composting training. Three students then took the composter-mulcher guide training course offered by Brest City Council.

These joint projects were an opportunity to engage with the students, who were involved in "hands-on" sustainable development education.

Learning to cook with the CROUS

In the evening, the chefs give lessons to pre-enrolled students. 

It's your turn to discover these magical instruments: what is a mixing bowl or a spatula?

You will learn how to make quick meals, of course, but above all how to cook tasty, balanced meals, with the tools you have, on a low budget. These lessons are sometimes jointly led by health professionals. They focus on simple, tasty recipes, which are then sold to the students in the restaurants.

You are also invited to discover local or seasonal products from the region, during special weeks.

This will definitely make you want to expand your cooking and eating choices. The university catering professionals are eager to share their expertise with you -  so many opportunities to taste meals that are very different from traditional mass catering.

Finally, you can explore the recipes on the Crous YouTube channel!

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Article Published on 11.19.2020 # Diet # Your rights # Health