Bio-Lebensmittel als ein Baustein nachhaltiger Schulverpflegung – ein europäischer Vergleich

Summary

School food procurement is a hot topic. This paper is based on results from the CORE Organic I research project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth” (iPOPY) and discusses how various strategies and instruments used for organic food procurement in school meals may increase organic food consumption. School food systems and their utilisation of organic food were studied in Italy, Finland, Germany, Norway, and Denmark. These national systems were compared according to five analytical categories: type of school food service, degree of public financing, political and administrative involvement in school food procurement in general, specific support for organic school food, and development of organic supply chains. The most important factor is a specific support of organic food. However, all five aspects have to be synchronised and combined coherently. Further, the organic message should be systematically linked up with the broader concept of sustainable nutrition to attain a larger interest and a stable embedding.