Catering and food procurement

Procurement describes a way of buying goods and services from external suppliers. Public services have an important part to play in supporting the move to a more sustainable food system by buying and selling nutritious and sustainable food to people through their catering services, as well as supporting more local businesses by using their services and facilities.

There is increasing recognition that cheap food can have costs not measured by a bottom line, such as health (e.g. resulting from low nutrient or high salt, sugar or fat foods) or environmental costs (e.g. ecological damage from intensive farming, pesticide use and water pollution) and of the importance of harnessing the power of public sector procurement to support and transform our local food economy.

The public sector is a large provider of food. For example, Glasgow City Council catering services serve approximately 34,000 meals per day in 300 education establishments (Source: Glasgow City Council, 2022) and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde produce around 10,000 meals in their food production unit (Source: NHSGGC, 2024).

This page was last updated in September 2024.