European Commission invites public authorities to green their food and catering services

Although Green Public Procurement is a voluntary instrument, it has a key role to play in the EU's efforts to become a more resource-efficient, circular economy. It can help stimulate a critical mass of demand for more sustainable goods, services and works, which otherwise would be difficult to get onto the market. Therefore, the European Commission is developing, since 2008, EU GPP criteria for priority product groups, including food, catering services and vending machines.

Today’s revised criteria are an update of the 2008 green public procurement criteria for food and catering services, and additionally include vending machines. The revision process was carried out with broad stakeholder consultation.

The new EU criteria for green public procurement published today allow schools, hospitals, institutions, companies and other public authorities to considerably reduce their environmental impacts from food, catering services and vending machines. For example, they can do so by:

• Increasing the share of organic products

• Avoiding the consumption of fish and marine products from depleted stocks

• Promoting an increased offer in plant-based menus

• Avoiding food waste and improving the overall management of waste

• Avoiding the use of single-use items

• Reducing energy consumption in kitchens and vending machines

• Reducing water consumption in kitchens.

The aim of this initiative is to provide procurers with a solid set of clear and verifiable environmental criteria for goods, services and works that can be used in their calls for tender.

Procurers can choose between two levels of ambition:

To keep administrative costs low and application simple, authorities can use the core criteria, focusing on the key area(s) of environmental performance of a product.

To go further in supporting environmental and innovation goals, authorities can use the comprehensive criteria, which take into account more aspects or higher levels of environmental performance. These may require additional verification or a slight increase in cost compared to other products with the same functionality.