Almost a quarter of what the UK spends on organic food in the sector is through the Soil Association’s Food for Life Served Here and Organic Served Here schemes - £28.2m last year, up from £19.5m in 2018.
The report identifies McDonald’s as the biggest player in the organic foodservice channel, while the wholly-organic Planet Organic serves 10,000 organic meals a week from its instore counters.
Mark Machin, the foodservice development manager for Soil Association Certification, said: “Chefs are the bridge between farm and fork, so it’s great to see strong increase of organic in foodservice as part of a more sustainable catering model.
“We know that consumers are more demanding than ever and expect to see sustainable food sourcing as standard when eating out. The future is bright for businesses that embrace organic.”
The overall organic market in the UK is now worth £2.45bn, according to the report, after a 4.5% growth in sales in 2019, with £200m spent each month on organic food and drink.
After eight years of growth, organic sales have reached their highest ever value and are expected to be worth £2.5 billion a year by the end of 2020.
Alongside foodservice, the new report shows growth across all channels, including supermarkets (+2.5%), home delivery (+11.2%) and independent retail (+6.5%).
Away from food and drink, sales of certified organic and natural beauty products grew 23%, while sales of textiles increased 10% in 2019.
Soil Association Certification encourages all caterers, chefs and suppliers interested in sustainable sourcing to visit: https://www.soilassociation.org/certification/foodservice/.