Last updated: 10/09/2024
Mandate health-based standards in public sector catering contracts
Mandate the inclusion of health-based standards in catering contracts that serve public spaces (eg, hospitals, prisons, social care)
- Low impact on obesity
A percentage estimate of how much the policy would reduce national obesity rates
- Relative reduction in obesity prevalence: 0.2%
- Low evidence quality
A rating of the strength of evidence, accounting for both reliability and validity of the evidence
- Reliability and validity rating: 2/5
- Low cost to governments
Cost to UK and devolved governments over 5 years
- Costs to governments over 5 years: £12m
- Benefit to governments per year: £0.1bn
What is the policy?
This policy mandates health-based standards are included in contracts when commissioning catering companies to provide their services in a public space. This applies to settings that serve public spaces, including hospitals, prisons and probation services, and residential care (but does not include schools or higher education).
The public sector in England allocates over £2 billion annually to food and catering services, with nearly half going to food and ingredients. The Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF), implemented in 2011 and updated in 2021, includes evidence-based recommendations on nutrition. GBSF includes mandatory standards to reduce the intake of high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) foods and increase consumption of healthier foods, along with voluntary best practice on labelling, availability, and portion sizes.
The GBSF is mandatory for catering in central government buildings, NHS hospitals, the armed forces and prisons. Wider adoption by the public sector is encouraged, such as in Local Authorities (LAs), residential care, and vending machines (eg, in leisure facilities).
Recent context
The devolved administrations can choose whether to follow GBSF in government buildings. Defra ran a consultation in 2019 about updating the nutrition standards underpinning GBSF, however results have not yet been published.
Case studies
School Food Standards, England
A set of new School Food Standards were launched in England in 2014. The Standards were introduced to ensure meals served in schools are nutritious, balanced, and conducive to children’s health and wellbeing. They provide guidelines for the quality and composition of food offered to students during school hours.
Along with setting nutritional standards, such as specifying the minimum nutritional content that meals should meet, they provide guidelines on portion sizes and recognise diverse dietary needs and cultural preferences.
Considerations for implementation
- Define which health-based standards are mandatory versus recommended best practices.
- Ensure alignment with ongoing or recently-concluded consultations, such as the 2019 consultation on updating nutrition standards underpinning the GBSF.
- Develop mechanisms for monitoring and enforcing compliance.
- Establish tools and guidelines for procurement processes.
- Provide support and resources for catering companies to meet the mandated health-based standards, potentially including training, technical assistance, or incentives.
Estimating the population impact
We estimated that this policy would reduce the prevalence of adult UK obesity rates by approximately 0.2%
Estimating the per-person impact
We estimated that this policy would reduce average daily calorie intake by approximately 1 kcal per person
Changes in the prevalence of people living with obesity
As a result of the effect sizes identified in the literature, our modelling suggests this policy would lead to a 0.2% and a 0.3% reduction in prevalence of obesity among adults in England and Scotland respectively.
| Adults (England and Wales) | Children 5-18 (England and Wales) | Adults (Scotland) | Children 5-18 (Scotland) |
| 0.2% | Not applicable | 0.3% | Not applicable |
Estimating the population reach
In our analytical model, we applied the effect sizes to people living with overweight or obesity. For adults, that is people aged 18 or above with a BMI of 25+. We are in the process of estimating the impact of this policy on children and will update our findings as soon as possible.
Cost and benefits
Cost over 5 years
We estimated that this policy would cost the governments approximately £12 million over five years
| Group affected | Cost | Horizon | Detail |
| Costs | |||
| Government | £2m | One-off | Familiarisation cost |
| Government | £10m | Annual (5 years) | Ongoing monitoring and implementation costs |
Total annual benefit
We estimated that this policy would have an annual benefit of approximately £0.1 billion
Impact on disease incidence
We commissioned HealthLumen to report disease incidence avoided if the policy were implemented. These estimates do not represent the total health benefits. The specific diseases selected are those where there is good evidence that living with obesity is associated with the development of the disease.
Behind the averages: impact on inequalities
This policy might lead to increased costs for catering companies, putting small or local enterprises at risk of being priced out. It might also lead to higher costs being passed on to citizens (where applicable), potentially leading to disparities in the quality, availability or price of food across different public sector settings.
There is no evidence that this policy would exacerbate weight stigma.
Rating the strength of evidence
We asked experts working in the fields of obesity, food, and health research to rate the strength of the evidence base for each policy, taking into account both reliability (size and consistency) and validity (quality and content) of the evidence. Policies were rated on a Likert scale of 1–5 (none, limited, medium, strong, and very strong evidence base). The Blueprint Expert Advisory Group rated this policy as having a Limited evidence base.
Restrict advertising of HFSS products
Implement a 2100-0530 watershed for TV and online advertising, alongside strict limitations on online paid advertisements, as well as prohibiting all HFSS advertisements on public transport, including bus stops, train stations, and tube stations (via national regulation)