Food and catering services

This section covers the official Government Buying Standards for the procurement of healthier, more sustainable, food and catering services. It details the full list of standards which are supported by a separate document that provides practical guidance for implementing the standards.

What does sustainability mean for food and catering services?

The GBS for food and catering services includes a suite of criteria covering three areas of sustainable procurement:

• Foods produced to higher sustainability standards – covering issues such as a food produced to higher environmental standards, fish from sustainable sources, seasonal fresh food, animal welfare and ethical trading considerations;
• Foods procured and served to higher nutritional standards - to reduce salt, saturated fat and sugar and increase consumption of fibre, fish and fruit and vegetables; and
• Procurement of catering operations to higher sustainability standards –  including equipment, waste and energy management.

Recent changes in this area

The GBS for food and catering services were published for the first time in June 2011.

Defra commissioned two pilots to introduce the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering into schools and hospitals. The reports of these pilots in 7 schools and 4 hospitals and the further guidance on GBS implementation developed by the researchers are available below. The views expressed reflect the research findings and the authors‘ interpretation; they do not necessarily reflect Defra policy or opinions.

In October 2012, this GBS was amended to include a new requirement about sourcing sustainable palm oil. Support and advice on procuring sustainable palm oil is available from http://www.cpet.org.uk/ (e-mail cpet@efeca.com, telephone 01305 236 100).