Quality catering recognised

The University has renewed its Bronze Food for Life Catering Mark, in recognition of its high-quality and sustainable food catering.

The Food for Life mark is a UK-wide awards scheme that celebrates best practice in providing fresh, healthy and ethical catered meals.

This year, the University also widened its certification, adding 13 catered outlets to its previous accreditation, which solely covered meals served at the John McIntyre Conference Centre at Pollock Halls of Residence.

All retail catering outlets at the University are now accredited by the award.

We are especially pleased to have retained this award, but most notably to be able to roll its coverage out to a further 13 catering units used by staff, students and visitors to the University. Of particular note is that our audit highlighted the extent of fresh food produced daily in-house, with scores of over 95 per cent for menu options prepared with fresh or minimally processed ingredients.

Citywide collaboration

In 2012, Edinburgh became the first Scottish university to achieve formal recognition in the Food for Life Catering Mark scheme.

Approved by the Soil Association, the scheme provides an independent endorsement that ingredients used by caterers are fresh, free from controversial additives, better for animal welfare and comply with national nutrition standards.

The bronze, silver and gold tiers encourage caterers to use local, free range, fair trade and organic ingredients to produce healthy menus.

The scheme is part of the Edinburgh Food for Life project, which sees the University collaborate with the City of Edinburgh Council and NHS Lothian to transform food culture across the capital.