Final report for 1881 Innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth (iPOPY)

Summary in the original language of the document

The transnational research project iPOPY (innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth)has studied public food serving for young people in five European countries (Denmark, Finland,Germany, Italy and Norway), to reveal efficient strategies and policies for implementing organic
food. In this way, the project would contribute to increase the consumption of organic products in Europe.
Significant consumption of organic food among youth has been achieved especially in Italy, where 40 % (by weight) of the school food is organic. Public regulations demanding that municipalities should prioritize organic and otherwise certified food (local, typical, fair trade) have been very
useful to establish this situation. A large consumption of organic food in schools is easiest achieved in “captive catering” situations, where all or most pupils participate in the food service. Highly flexible systems with many options may reduce the food quality because the demand will be highly variable, and a stable high quality school food production is then difficult to plan and develop. A “captive catering” of complete meals will increase the volume of food consumed, and the possibilities to link the food consumption to food education. Caring for people’s health, the environment and organic food and agriculture are
all tendencies pulling in the same direction. Schools with a dedicated organic food policy are also more active to promote healthy eating among the pupils in general.
Organic food in schools should be linked to concepts such as sustainable development and sustainable nutrition, and embedded as a “whole school approach”. Sustainable development is a general educational aim for the basic education in all studied countries, and organic food in
schools has a large potential to contribute in the teaching of sustainability.