Local authorities increase their use of assurance marks for meat

The latest annual survey, carried out on behalf of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), shows that 86% of local authority caterers include sustainability criteria in their food supply contracts (up from 78% in 2008). Six out of every 10 authorities in England structure their meat supply contracts so that small and medium-sized companies and local suppliers are able to tender for all or at least some part of the supply contract. The findings were welcomed by Tony Goodger, BPEX foodservice trade manager: "It's particularly pleasing to see that progress towards the aims of PSFPI is accompanied by the increased use of the BPEX Quality Standard Mark for pork and pork products and of the EBLEX Quality Standard mark for beef and lamb. "The regular communication of consistent messages about the importance of assurance schemes for red meat is certainly having a positive effect and local authorities have increased their use of assurance marks." This was echoed by EBLEX foodservice project manager, Hugh Judd, who noted that the use by local authority caterers of the Quality Standard mark for beef and lamb had just about doubled in the past year to 51% (from 26% in 2008) and that the use of the Quality Standard Mark for pork was also well up – to 46% from 25% the previous year. In addition, the use of the Red Tractor logo by local authority caterers also rose – up from 43% in 2008 to 55% in this year. He also revealed that the work by EBLEX and BPEX with local authorities would continue with the planned introduction later this year of a 'tool kit' designed both to help local authorities construct tender documents incorporating PSFPI criteria and to guide suppliers through the tendering process involved. One surprise in the research results is the small decline in the number of local authorities buying Halal meat – down from 59% last year to 52% – though a possible explanation is that many authorities find the Halal meat issue complicated and opt to serve their Muslim customers vegetarian meals. However, of those local authorities who do buy Halal meat, 77% do so to an assured standard with the Halal Monitoring Committee and Halal Food Authority being the two most-mentioned assurance schemes.