Catering industry must beware 'greenwashing' claims on sustainability

The roundtable meeting was called by the Sustainable Restaurant Association and backed by Space Catering Equipment, whose managing director Mike Mellor highlighted the problems of 'green washing' in the foodservice industry - the practice of making claims about sustainable practicce that cannot be backed up. He said: "Myths can be created making it difficult from the start of the food chain to the table. There are a lot of shameless lies or misconceptions. Some produce does a lap of the universe before coming to a venue." Caroline Fry, chief executive - business and industry with contractor CH&Co, said many clients were looking at sustainability and wanted to know if goods being supplied ticked all the boxes. "We source quality food using such qualifications as the Red Tractor where possible but there needs to be more clarity." She was supported by Chris Creed of Creed Foodservices who stressed that often supplies were made to look more 'green'. He said: "In the case of chickens, claims have been made that they are British but the figures are higher than the number that are actually farmed. If buyers are not getting clear information it makes the process harder." Added Fry: "Around 80% of the food we use is British and when we hear claims from others that they are using 100% that's rubbish and people are being hoodwinked. Customers tend to believe what they are told. We have got to try to educate them." And on general sustainability issues, she said: "When the Government can't even get the policies right for its own staff restaurants what chance have we got? "Our problem can be that diners at our clients' restaurants want to eat over a short period of time so for us to point out all the green aspects is difficult." The SRA said that on the question of food waste, the amount is always under-estimated by operators who focus mainly on the produce in storerooms. Fry said CH&Co had achieved really low figures for wastage and had the evidence to back these claims up. Stephen Kinkead, managing director of Winterhalter UK, the German company supplying warewashing systems, said: "The customer is our top priority and more and more are saying that they want energy efficiency, while nine out of 10 want to know the payback."