Towards a more sustainable food supply in collective catering: Procurement

June 2021

Agence pour l’Environnement et la Maîtrise de l’Energie (ADEME)

To download : ademe-guide-bonnes-pratiques-egalim-2021.pdf (19 MiB)

Organic and quality for satisfied diners!

Procurement is a key lever for introducing quality food from sustainable production methods into the catering offer. At this stage, it is also possible to anchor food in the territory and to promote local products and actors. Combined with the know-how of the professional teams, this supply will make the difference in the service offer. In addition, it responds to a change in the expectations of diners.

Some figures

• In 2019, 65% of collective catering establishments offer organic products, according to the Agence Bio, compared to only 3.5% in 2007, illustrating the strong increase in demand. This proportion represents 86% in the school sector, 58% in work catering and 38% in health and social care.

• On average, the purchase of organic products represents 5.6% of the value of food purchases in collective catering, according to the Agence bio. 72% of the organic products purchased are of French origin, 50% of which are regional, showing the attention paid to the origin of the products and their anchorage in the regions.

The main organic products purchased are fresh fruit and vegetables and dairy products. This development meets an expectation: 90% of French people say they are interested in meals with organic products at school.

Exhaustive list of sustainable and/or quality products « EGAlim » :

• Products from organic farming (at least 20%). Plant products labelled « in conversion » are included if they are raw or processed products made up of a single ingredient of plant origin and come from a farm that has been in conversion for more than one year.

• Products benefiting from other official signs of identification of quality and origin (SIQO) or the following added value mentions: Label rouge, appellation d’origine (AOC/AOP), geographical indication (IGP), Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (STG), the mention « from a farm with High Environmental Value » (HVE), the mention « farm » or « farm product » or « produced on the farm », only for products for which there is a regulatory definition of the conditions of production (eggs and dairy products, poultry, red meat)

• Until 31/12/2029 only, products from a farm with HVE level 2 environmental certification.

• Products from maritime fisheries benefiting from the Sustainable Fishing ecolabel.

• Products bearing the « Outermost Region » (OR) logo.

Good to know: European legislation requires the possible use of « equivalent products » in the drafting of public contracts. This equivalence remains the responsibility of the buyer, who determines it on the basis of evidence provided by the supplier. The purchaser may introduce a criterion for analysing tenders in its public contracts relating to the costs imputed to environmental externalities throughout the life cycle. There is no official benchmark or methodology for this calculation, which is the responsibility of the purchaser, and which allows, under certain conditions, for the inclusion of purchased products in the 50%.

What is a local product?

To facilitate identification from the fac- tures, a pragmatic approach is to identify food produced or processed in the administrative region and, if necessary, in neighbouring departments.

How to increase the share of sustainable and/or quality products?

1. Identify the existing offer and compare it with current purchases:

• What sustainable and/or quality products, including organic ones, can be supplied locally? There are many tools that reference local production, particularly from organic farming: Agrilocal, Manger Bio Ici et Maintenant for example.

• For non-local products: which products are offered by your current suppliers? It is generally easier to focus on whole categories of products: for example, switching bread, dairy products and seasonal fruit to organic, buying red label meat… The inventory of the offer must go beyond the types of products you usually buy to open up the field of possibilities: in particular, even if you do not have a vegetable shop, analysing the offer of raw products can lead to changing your structure or working with other restaurants in the sector.

2. Analyse the contractual, financial and organisational issues In concessionary catering :

• What are the clauses and duration of your contract?

• Is your service provider proactive with regard to the EGAlim law?

• What are your public procurement constraints (current, thresholds for contracts to be renewed)?

• What adaptations can be made in the short / medium term?

• What are your constraints on the cost of the meal? Can these constraints change?

• Do you know your internal room for manoeuvre (organisational, financial)?

3. Draw up a short- and medium-term plan by grading the actions

Level 1: Substitution of a « conventional » product by a similar « EGAlim » product (e.g. introduction of bread from organic farming).

Level 2: Change your menu plan by taking into account the seasonality of products and the quality local resources available.

Level 3: rethink your organisation (delegation, vegetable shop, groupings, etc.) for a sustainable food transition.

Sources

To go further