SLU now has guidelines for food purchasing!

Food can be many things: a way to satisfy hunger, something wholesome and healthy, part of a ritual, and a way to include people. It can also be locally produced, environmentally sound, climate-smart and benefit biodiversity. Nevertheless, food production is behind a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions and contributes to the global loss of biodiversity. Determining the most environmentally sustainable food choices is a complicated task.

The Environment Unit outlines the environmental requirements when procuring framework agreements such as those for coffee, tea, fruit and catering. The orderer is responsible for the products ordered via the framework agreement. These new guidelines will help you when ordering or procuring catering and foodstuffs enabling you to make choices can reduce the environmental impact of our consumer behaviour. The guidelines will be continually reviewed as research, knowledge and tools related to the field progress.

The guidelines cover the following food categories: fruit and vegetables, cakes and pastries, coffee, tea and other beverages, fish and shellfish, meat and other animal products, plant-based protein sources and carbohydrates. They also cover the guidelines for managing food and general waste.