Organic foods in Danish municipal school food systems – a multistakeholder analysis of available evidence on constraints and perspectives

Summary

Previous studies have shown that organic supply and healthy eating initiatives in school food services share common features. Both types involves changes in supply, the collaboration of a number of different stakeholders and both include a physical food part as well as a non physical symbolic aspect. Studies have shown that introducing organic food in public food systems seems to affect the nutritional profile of the food service and anecdotal evidence suggest that organic supply forces food services to rethink menus leading to healthier menus and that introduction of organic foods often leads to adoption of a food & nutrition policy. The explanation might be that simply developing “food strategy” leads to a raise of awareness in school food services in such a way that both organic food and healthy eating tends to favor and that the notion of organic food and health eating in the minds of the decision makers is perceived as two sides of the same coin. Thus organic food supply and healthier food service seems to thrive in a symbiotic association and it appears that organic food seems to possess a “health improvement” potential that fits well with the prevailing ambitions that exists in many countries of making school settings for healthier eating initiatives.