Olympic food standards championed by London government

Sustainable foodis firmly on the menu for London Government, according to a major review of responsible procurement published today by the Greater London Authority (GLA), and reporting on catering standards for London's City Hall, police, fire brigade and transport services.

In autumn 2010, the GLA Group committed to ambitious sustainable food standards, inspired by the same commitment by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, consisting of a range of promises to buy food grown to higher standards of environmental protection and animal welfare, sustainable fish, and food that has been fairly traded.

As the review of progress, published in February 2012 states, "The GLA group recognises the important role that food and catering procurement can play in improving prospects for farmers and small businesses, environmental standards of farming and food production, and the welfare of farm animals. The group is also committed to serving healthier options and helping to improve the health and well-being of staff and Londoners.
The GLA group Sustainable Food Procurement Commitment, launched at the Responsible Procurement awards in December 2010, committed the four functional bodies, (GLA, LFB, TfL and MPS) to 11 sustainable food procurement criteria."

The commitments are based on The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) London 2012 Food Vision for sustainable food at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It sets an aspiration for the GLA group to be a national leader of best practice. Examples of sustainable food initiatives to meet and exceed the criteria include:

• The Metropolitan Police Service has signed up to the Sustainable Fish City initiative and is purchasing pollock instead of cod (cod stocks have significantly reduced in recent years).
• The London Fire Brigade procures only Fairtrade bananas, tea, coffee and sugar and has held a sustainable fish event and a local fruit and vegetables day in the London Fire Brigade staff restaurant.
• Transport for London stipulated that all food waste should be composted and all other waste recycled. All disposable packaging has to be made from recyclable material and all used cooking oil is collected and converted for use in vehicles.
• The GLA group procure more than 1.7million free range eggs per annum.
• The GLA group, in conjunction with ‘Good Food on the Public Plate’ (a sister project to Sustainable Fish City and Food Legacy, and also run by Sustain), has run training events for chefs and catering managers, including a Sustainable Fish Workshop at Billingsgate Fish Market and the Meat: The Challenge event with chef Chef Cyrus Todiwala.

Download the Delivering Responsible Procurement report (4.5Mb PDF).