Public sector canteens face review
Schools, hospitals, and prisons will have to pay more attention to the food they provide from now on.
The Government announced today that it would be conducting a major review of catering services provided to its various agencies, looking at issues such as the environmental impact of production and distribution, waste, animal welfare, pesticide use and nutrition.
It will also examine whether small producers are being given a fair chance to compete for public sector contracts.
Food and Farming Minister Lord Whitty commented: “More than £1.8bn is spent in England by public purchasers on food each year, and millions of people eat courtesy of the state each day.”
“Up to now, ensuring the sustainability of this food has not been co-ordinated across government, and individual authorities for the most part have been working on their own initiative. The central delivery plan gives us a framework to co-ordinate the initiative
across the public sector.”
The review will also look at whether the food served can contribute to organisations’ wider objectives, such as improved classroom performance in children after a nutritional lunch, and less anti-social behaviour from prisoners receiving a healthy diet.
DEFRA is recommending that public sector caterers and buyers should have high environmental standards included in their contracts, that more should be done to ensure that small and medium-sized suppliers are aware of the tendering process to help them compete with larger companies, and that organic food should be promoted.
Jonathon Porritt, chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, noted: “This is an excellent step forward. Buying food isn’t just about buying as cheaply as possible, it’s about looking at where and how food has been produced, and what the full impacts have been, on the environment and on individual producers.”
All government departments have been given a checklist to ensure that they are progressing towards more sustainable food provision, and the Local Government Association is developing guidance for councils on sustainable procurement.
