Government plan to promote local foods

The Government has launched an action plan to encourage public sector caterers to buy more locally produced food. The move is intended to improve the nutritional quality of food served in hospitals, schools and prisons, to provide a boost for British farming, and to reduce waste and damage to the environment.

Guidance from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for public purchasing managers says they should give local producers equal opportunities to compete for contracts. Under EU competition law, buyers cannot specify that food must be local or British.

Buyers are also urged to set standards regarding freshness, nutritional content, animal welfare, and energy and pesticide usage when drawing up tender documents.

Defra's guidance recommends that buyers source more organic and fair-trade produce, avoid buying disposable cutlery and plates, and milk and sauce sachets, and reduce the number of food deliveries.

Public purchasers spend more than £1.8b on food in Britain each year. The NHS alone spends £500m a year.

Food and farming minister Lord Whitty said: "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.

"This plan gives us a framework to co-ordinate the initiative across the public sector."

Further information is available online at: www.defra.gov.uk/farm/sustain/procurement/index.htm.