Why should we change the way we procure food?
Over the past few decades the food purchased in the multi-billion pound public sector catering and food market has been channelled through fewer, big companies. Supply chains have become predominantly long and opaque which makes the provision of meaningful farm-level data impossible for procurers to consider.
Procurers often have little or no clear understanding of where public sector food is coming from or how it was produced, let alone its carbon footprint or biodiversity impacts. So, improving supply chain transparency is crucial to make the informed choices needed to help address issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, food poverty and diet-related disease.
Additionally, most sustainable small and medium-sized enterprises producers and suppliers have struggled to overcome barriers to access the public sector food marketplace via conventional procurement methods. Directing more public sector food spend to SMEs has huge potential for economic transformation.
Through creating more transparent, inclusive supply chains, Dynamic Food Procurement has the potential to deliver significant social, economic and environmental outcomes for all.
Dynamic Food Procurement uses a combination of Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and electronic catalogue procurement regulations supported by innovative supply chain technology to create a sophisticated open digital marketplace that connects local food producers, logistics providers and purchasers in one place.
The technology delivers unprecedented supply chain transparency from field to fork, allowing procurers to make more informed data-based and sustainable choices. It also enables more small and medium-sized producers and suppliers to sell directly to the public sector on their own terms, regardless of scale and size, through consolidated orders.
Dynamic Food Procurement has been successfully trialled and proven to deliver significant benefits, including environmental and financial cost reductions. As a result, there is widespread support for implementation of Dynamic Food Procurement across the UK and Europe.
What is dynamic food procurement?
Dynamic Food Procurement UK National Advisory Board
"Dynamic procurement of food can bring about significant benefits to contribute to improved sustainability performance and food security."
The UK National Food Strategy
"Trials of this purchasing system suggest that it works extremely well, with users reporting more choice, better quality and no increase in costs. The Government should accelerate the roll-out of this dynamic procurement scheme."
The Sustainable Food Trust
"Dynamic procurement is a strategy to adjust procurement practices to better reflect and support sustainable farming. The public sector is ideally positioned to support local farmers and public sector caterers can provide regular business, considerable spend and reliable payments."