UK: Food for Life Catering Mark awards to be celebrated

The Food for Life Catering Mark Awards will take place on 18 June 2015. They will celebrate the individuals who champion the Catering Mark and are so fundamental to the programme in schools, hospitals, workplaces, universities, nurseries and care homes all over the UK. The Catering Mark has already helped caterers and food providers across the country improve the food served so that more nutritious, sustainable and fresh food is served every day. The Soil Association are calling for entries from all food providers who hold a Catering Mark to show the hard work and innovation that goes into the industry. The nominations close on 18 May. The entries will be assessed before the awards ceremony and a shortlist of three nominees per sector will be released, these will then be invited to attend to event on the 18 June 2015.

This year’s awards will also celebrate the recent landmark of reaching one million Catering Mark meals served per day. This figure relates specifically to week days – there are less Catering Mark meals served at weekends. There are 178,000,000+ meals served annually to Catering Mark standards. Collectively, Catering Mark holders spend over £40 million (about €55 million) on British ingredients each year; over £7 million on organic ingredients each year, nearly £4 million on free range and Freedom Food-certified meat each year, and over £3.8 million on MSC certified fish each year, for example. Catering Mark meals are eaten in 25 per cent of English schools, over 30 universities, in hospitals, nurseries, venues and workplaces. Pearson, Jaguar/Land Rover, PepsiCo and EDF are amongst the companies who are serving Catering Mark meals in staff canteens. More information is available here.