Mandate health-based standards in public sector catering contracts

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).

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. 

In Wales, the new Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 provides a framework to promote sustainable development through social partnership working, promoting fair work and socially responsible procurement. This places a duty to procure in-line with the wellbeing objective of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act 2015, which includes a goal for A Healthier Wales, but does not set specific standards. 

In the Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales 2022 to 2024 delivery plan, the Welsh Government has committed to introduce National Government Buying Standards on public procurement to maximise public funding on healthier food and drink. Currently, there is a patchwork approach with different guidance provided to different sectors (for example, the All Wales Nutrition and Catering Standards for Food and Fluid Provision for Hospital Inpatients and the Healthy Eating in Maintained Schools statutory guidance). In addition, some public bodies have developed their own standards, for example, Cardiff and Vale Health Board have developed standards for commercial and retail food outlets on their premises, ensuring that at least 75% of the food and drink sold at outlets to staff, patients and visitors are healthy. 

In Scotland, whilst there are no overarching mandated health-based targets for all public sector settings, there are standards for hospital retail settings. The Healthcare Retail Standard (HRS) is part of a vision for the NHS in Scotland to be a national health-promoting health service. Half of all food and 70% of all drinks sold in NHS buildings in Scotland must comply with the HRS criteria. An evaluation published in 2019 showed that 97% of relevant retailers had adhered to the standard with notable drops in purchases of less healthy products which did not meet the criteria. Additionally, the Scottish Government’s Diet and Healthy Weight: out of home action plan committed to exploring how best to secure maximum take-up of the plan across the public sector. More recently, the proposed National Good Food Nation Plan requires LAs and health boards to report on their progress towards making Scotland a Good Food Nation. This should be used to drive positive changes in the nutritional quality of food in public spaces.

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.

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.