Healthy and sustainable food procurement in Norwegian upper secondary schools

Public food procurement as a tool for healthier and environmentally sustainable diets; current practices and opportunities for intervention in Norwegian school canteens.

Background: Public procurement has the potential to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable food system by stimulating access to and demand for healthy foods and foods with a lower impact on climate and the environment. The present study investigates the nutritional quality and environmental impact of food procurement among upper secondary schools in south-eastern Norway. In addition, we examine changes in food procurement after one year of intervention for healthier and more sustainable school canteens.
Methods: Procurement data was obtained from upper secondary schools (n=36) in former Viken county (Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold), based on electronic invoice information about foods and beverages purchased for the school's canteens over a quarter in 2022. In a subsample, we have baseline and follow-up data after one year of intervention for healthier and more sustainable school canteens organised by former Viken county in collaboration with the guidance service "Matvalget" (n=8), and for control schools where no intervention was conducted (n=7).Extensive data processing of the procurement data was required before imported to the nutritional calculation system (KBS, version AE-22) at the University of Oslo. KBS enables simultaneous estimation of nutritional content and environmental impact of the procurement data. Data on six environmental impact categories were available: global warming potential, freshwater and marine eutrophication, water use, land use, acidification.
Results: The nutritional quality of food procurements in the upper secondary schools was limited according to several nutrients, particularly vitamin D, folate and selenium. The food groups “Dairy” and “Meat and poultry” contributed most to overall environmental impacts. The purchase of beverages contributed with a quarter of the procurements in grams per 10 MJ, however, only to a small share of environmental impacts. Additional results will be presented at the conference.
Conclusion: Results suggest a potential for improvement of the nutritional quality and environmental impact of public procurements among upper secondary schools in former Viken county. Monitoring procurement data can provide valuable insights into how public institutions are working towards healthier and more sustainable public procurements. However, the procurement data is currently not suitable for this purpose without resource-intensive data processing. Standardised output from procurement invoice data is needed and could be a useful tool for promoting healthier and more sustainable diets.