Discrepancy between theory and practice: procurement of local and organic food in public catering systems

Summary

Research results and local development strategies highlight the procurement of local and organic food products as an instrument that contributes to the improvement of both, the sustainable use of natural resources and the regional economy.
Although a number of directives and agreements such as the reform of European legislation on public procurement in 2004 or the European “Green Public Procurement”-criteria enable member states to include environmental and social criteria in award processes, research results point out that the uptake of green and social criteria in tenders does not only vary significantly across the member states, but also across regions and product groups.
For the purpose of identifying factors hampering local and organic food purchases in tendering procedures, this paper aims to point out the differences in theory and practice in public procurement processes. The analysis is based on case studies on school catering in Berlin and the Federal State of Brandenburg, which present two different models of procurement policies.