No pork in the dining room of Barcelona's public schools for the inclusion of Muslims
The menus of 65 public schools in Barcelona confirm the minimal presence of pork in school canteens. The Generalitat recommends that children eat pork one day a week.
Pork is one of the pillars of Catalan gastronomy and has been part of children's daily diet for generations. Common dishes such as butifarra with potatoes or beans, loin with rice, cannelloni, meatballs, bolognese for pasta or hamburgers have always been part of family and school tables. However, this historical and cultural presence contrasts with the reality of school canteens in Barcelona: Pork has become extinct or is very scarce.
There are 157 public schools in Barcelona and 65 have menus available on their websites. The analysis of the monthly menus of public schools shows only three schools have pork two days a month, which is more normal when there is none or when it is only a secondary ingredient. Even when it looks like a pig... it's not. The data is clear:
- In 15 schools (23%) there is no pork any day of the month either as a main or secondary ingredient.
- In 20 schools (30%) it is not clear whether the meat is pork or not. They put sausages, croquettes, hamburgers or meatballs but they do not say what they are made of. The suspicion that they are not pork is because on the menu halal or without pork there is also the same dish but in a version halal.
- In 8 schools (12%) there is only pork as a secondary ingredient (beef and pork bolognese, omelette with ham, peas with bacon shavings, etc.)
- Only 17 schools (26%) use the word "pork" to make it clear that they are putting "pork sausages", "pork ribs", etc.
- In 8 schools (12%) there is no menu halal because the standard is already halal and it implies that he doesn't have a pig.
- In 11 schools (17%) the standard menu and halal They are the same but change 1 day a month (pork cubes change to tofu cubes, pork tenderloin changes to chicken, etc.).
- In 20 schools (30%) a pork dish is served one day a month (or so it seems).
- 3 schools (4%) have pork two days a month.
- No school has pork three or more days a month
The Generalitat recommends that children eat pork one day a week
The Generalitat's recommendations for school canteens indicate that pork can be part of the menu once a week. However, this guideline is not followed. Both the 2017 guide (available only in Spanish) as the 2020 review (also only in Spanish) specify the recommendation explicitly.
There is no official criterion that considers it healthy or advisable to reduce the presence of pigs to just one day a month or not at all. However, the reality is that Barcelona's school canteens serve pork well below recommendations without any explicit health justification.
What schools do comply with is the instruction of the Barcelona Education Consortium of the year 2016 which imposed that "«The companies awarded the canteen services and kitchens of the educational centers must guarantee the
uniqueness of menus requested by families for cultural reasons,
religious and special regime situations due to medical prescription«. The order emphasizes that the price cannot be raised to accommodate religious diversity in schools.
This instruction mandatory was enacted in June 2016, just one year after the arrival of the Comuns in Barcelona City Council and led to the disappearance of the pig from the Nursery Schools. The Royal Decree 315/2025 of the Pedro Sánchez government establishes that centers must offer menus adapted to ethical or religious needs or means for them to bring it from home. Neither of the two instructions said anything about the own gastronomic culture.
Having up to 17 school menus has killed the pig
The logistics of managing up to 17 different menus in the same center have contributed to reducing the presence of pork. This diversity means that when planning meals It is easier and cheaper to eliminate the pig than to maintain it regularly..
According to the Barcelona Education Consortium, In the city there are schools with up to 9 different menus. A the dining service report for the 2022-2023 school year there were 231 centers with the standard menu but also 186 without pork and 134 with halal. If we add the two we get 320 which means that many centers offer both options.
Variety of school menus in Barcelona according to the 2022-2023 Dining Service Report of the Education Consortium.
The maximum that the Education Consortium finds is schools with 9 menus. However, The reality is that we can find schools with 17 proposals for school lunch. For example, the Rius i Taulet School has the following menus: standard (basal), no nuts, no egg, no cow protein, no fructose, no lactose, special diet, halal without fish, halal with fish, no pork, vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, no poultry, no beef, no meat, gluten-free, no legumes.
The number of menus is very variable and can be 2 (normal and halal or normal and vegetarian) or they can be as many as you want with very variable criteria: at Escola de les Aigües they have pork-free, beef-free, beef-free, pepper-free, raw egg-free, egg-free, egg-free, egg-shellfish-free, egg-sesame-free, nut-free, egg-free, gluten-free, fish-free, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, legume-free, peanut-free, sesame-free, pea-free, multi-allergy, turmeric-free, and halal.
Basic menu but without pork for September 2025 at the Rius i Taulet School in Barcelona. Download the 17 PDF menus.
Most of the menus are for allergies and intolerances, others for ideology or religion (vegetarian) but there are also religious ones (halal with fish, halal without fish, without pork or without beef).
The distinction halal without fish or with fish is because there are sects of Islam in South Asia (Hanafi) that do not recommend it or prohibit it. Hanafi Islam is a variant of Islam widespread in countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh or Afghanistan. Most Muslims believe that fish is acceptable. but some reduce it to those with scales and do not accept other marine animals such as shellfish or crabs. This is the case of the Hanafites but also of the Jafarite Shiites who are the majority in Iran and present in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Bahrain or Lebanon. The "pork-free" option is for Orthodox Christians, Seventh-day Adventists or for some very minority health problem. The beef-free menu is to satisfy the Hinduism of India or Nepal.
The standard menus of the 70% schools are pork-free
The 65 school canteens in the 157 public schools represent 40% of the total number of public primary schools in Barcelona. In 20 of them it is not clear what meat the meatballs, bolognese, country sausage or lean meat are made of. When we look at the halal menu they casually have halal poultry butifarra, halal sausages, lean beef or vegetable croquettes. It is most likely that it will be the same dish for all menus to simplify logistics and contain the price. If so, it means that 45 schools representing 70% of the total do not offer pork any day of the month.
If we add the 8 that only have pork products as a secondary ingredient ("bacon shavings") the figure rises to 80%.
Standard pork-free menu from Escola Poble Sec where they say "diversity is wealth"«
Halal is for everyone in Barcelona schools
The coincidence of the same dish halal and not halal is very common. For example, at the School of the Universe on Friday, September 18 on the regular menu there is a beef burger and on the menu halal the hamburger is halal. On the other hand, on the 10th they served breaded loin but on the menu halal it's chicken with which at least it can be guaranteed that one day a month the infidels have eaten pork. The rest of the days the type of meat matches. halal and not halal and it is not credible that they have two suppliers and two processes to make the same dish.
There are 8 schools that do not offer a halal menu. These are schools like Montseny, Orlandai or Cervantes. It may seem that these schools do not comply with the order to attend to the religious needs of the students, but nothing could be further from the truth. We asked if they complied with Sharia law, posing as anxious Muslim parents and They shared the certificates with us without any problem. halal so that we don't suffer for the spiritual future of our children:
Certificate halal from the school cafeteria provider who doesn't have a menu halal.
Despite this situation, The most normal thing is that there is no pork on the regular menu and the halal menu is a copy but adding that chicken or beef is halal. This is what happens at the Milà i Fontanals School, the Mediterrània and many more where there is no pork. And it seems that, Serving products sacrificed according to the halal ritual to all children is the way to ensure that the price of the menu does not increase.
Cous-Cous, hummus, tabbouleh... but no pork
It is noteworthy that there are schools, such as Parc del Guinardó or Pit-Roig, which They don't serve pork any day in September but they have chickpea hummus and couscous. This move is another twist because they have not only eliminated the native gastronomic culture but have also introduced foods from another culinary tradition.
You might think that school cafeterias routinely offer dishes from other cultures, but that's not the case. The only culture represented in the school cafeteria is that of hummus, couscous and taboulé. No menu has arepas, empanadas, ceviche, sarmale, pelmelis, chicken gong bao or sushi.
Gastronomic substitution is a reality
School canteens in Barcelona have drastically reduced the presence of traditional dishes made with pork, offering it only one day a month or eliminating it completely. At the same time, they have introduced recipes from other origins. This change is what is known as cultural inclusion. and implies the disappearance of the local gastronomy for economic reasons.
The 2016 Education Consortium order and Royal Decree 315/2025 oblige school canteens to offer menus adapted to religious needs. In Barcelona this is perfectly complied with and It has been achieved that it does not affect the price by not really making two different menus.
The result is that the price to pay so that the cost does not rise is paid the population that is not afraid to go to hell for eating pork. These people see how they lose the cultural right to consume the gastronomy that is their own and where pork is one of the protagonists. Many parents don't even know it because when they see "farmer's sausage" they may think it is pork because they don't see that it is the same one on the menu halal. They don't even consider their children eating slaughtered animals. without animal welfare guarantees and with a religious man praying in the direction of Saudi Arabia.
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