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Food Sustainability

Sustainable Food Policy

Introduction

This document forms part of St Mary’s University overall approach to food sustainability and covers all outlets and food served by the Catering Services Department. Catering Services recognises its responsibility to provide healthy and sustainable food to its customers and takes their environmental responsibility seriously.

To that end our Catering team achieved the Soil Association Bronze Award in July 2024 and also continues to promote Fairtrade products on campus. The University is signed up to (the Soil Association) Cool Food Pro carbon calculator. It helps us to focus and move towards key areas namely, better quality but less meat, seasonal, organic & local produce and reducing food waste impact. The service has also partnered with Carma Earth which makes social and environmental impact simple and affordable by planting trees around the world.

Our aims

Sustainable food systems are those that produce and distribute food in a way that is environmentally, socially, and economically viable, ensuring food security and nutrition for all without compromising future generations. This means minimising negative impacts on the planet, promoting fair labour practices, and ensuring economic viability for producers. We work with our suppliers and contractors to minimise negative environmental, ethical and social effects, and provide a range of products which are healthier for the people and the planet.

We aim to:

  • Provide a choice of healthy and sustainable food options to our students, staff, commercial clients and visitors.
  • Maintain standards of the Soil Association Bronze award and work towards Silver and Gold Standards
  • Continue promotion of Fairtrade products as part of Food for Life
  • Achieve higher reduction in CO2 generation from our food business by  incorporating the five principles of Cool Food Pro
  • Create a more positive social & environmental impact by engaging our customers to care for the planet and its people by planting more trees with the help of our partnership with Carma Earth
  • Constantly look for new initiatives to reduce waste, and re-use/ recycle more and minimise the impact of waste on the environment
  • Help the University better its sustainability credentials and goals

Procurement

The University were using Pelican Procurement / Avendra International till January 2026.  They are a supply chain specialist with over 30 years of knowledge within the food service and catering sector. Click here for more details. The University has returning to purchasing via  TUCO from February 2026.The University reviews its procurement partners and suppliers every few years and with TUCO suppliers is continuing its sustainable goals  Click here for more details.

Sustainable and ethical procurement are embedded into the supply tendering criteria. We are also committed to ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in the supply chains or in any part of the business. The service also supports the work and various catering related projects run by the Bakhita Centre for research on slavery, exploitation & abuse. TUCO is also committed to improving practices to combat trafficking and slavery. Click here for more details of the TUCO statement.

The Catering Services Department has the following requirements for all food outlets and services provided:

      • Catering and Bar services use nominated suppliers from within the approved Pelican / TUCO purchasing supplier network.   
      • It offers Vegetarian or Vegan options at each service, and promotes National Vegetarian Week, Veganuary and other healthy eating initiatives.
      • It uses fresh vegetables and fruit from British suppliers.
      • It uses British Free-Range Eggs, and meat that is produced according to high animal welfare standards like Red Tractor.  Where British free- range eggs are not available, then EU free-range eggs are ordered.
      • Catering services serve MSC (Marine Stewardship council) certified sustainable fish

Soil Association Food for Life

The Service was audited and achieved the Soil Association Food for Life Bronze Award in July 2024 for food produced and served in the main kitchen and restaurant – the Refectory.  The main criteria are as follows:  At least 75% of the food is freshly prepared onsite from unprocessed ingredients.  All meat is from farms that satisfy UK animal welfare standards like Red Tractor. All fish is MSC certified. Eggs are from free range hens. No undesirable additives or artificial trans fats are used. No genetically modified goods are used. Free drinking water is available in all outlets. Menus are seasonal and in-season produce is highlighted for customers to choose from.  The service is committed to this scheme and is working towards achieving higher standards of silver and gold by using more organic and Fairtrade produce.

 

Fairtrade Status

The Service has been a Fairtrade supporter since 2011.  It promoted the value of Fairtrade and actively celebrated Fairtrade Fortnight every year.  The University was last re-awarded University Fairtrade Status - One Star rating-  July 2022 to July 2024.  It also supports the use of other ethically and sustainably sourced products and purchases a range of Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified products. The University continues to support and promote Fairtrade products like Tea, Hot Chocolate and a range of confectionary and soft drinks.  As the service aims for Soil Association Silver and Gold standards which will also audit the commitment of the University’s use of Fairtrade products

Transport, deliveries and packaging

The Service now uses a fully electric catering van for transporting goods across campus.  Deliveries are being reduced and we are working with suppliers to see how the use of greener vehicles like electric or clean bio diesel vehicles is possible. Delivery containers and packaging is being reduced to a minimum, and must be either re-useable or recyclable where possible.

Cool Food Pro

The service has committed to reducing its carbon footprint and starting using the Cool Food Pro web application in May 2025 to monitor its food waste from the main kitchen and plate wastage after each service.  The tools on the website, help us to focus and move towards five key areas namely; Better quality but less meat, seasonal, organic & local produce and reducing food waste impact.

Carma Earth

The service signed up to Carma Earth in December 2024 to help make a greater social and environmental impact.  Carma does this in a simple and affordable way by planting trees around the world. Customers using Catering outlets can buy three types of trees that can be planted by Carma:  Kenyan Mangrove, Canadian Kelp or a range of trees in the UK. Customers that have plant based meals get loyalty stamps and for every 5 plant based meals purchased they can get a voucher to purchase a tree to be planted by Carma.  At St Mary’s we are committed to a more sustainable future. We want to reduce our own climate impact and we also want to have a positive impact on nature and communities in the UK and overseas. Our partnership with Carma helps us to achieve this. We ask customers to help us achieve our goal of planting 20,000 trees (to save approximately 6000 tonnes of CO2) in the next five years.   Together we can create a greener, more sustainable future, one meal at a time.

Too Good To Go

The service has partnered with Too Good To Go (TGTG) since September 2021 which has helped to save hundreds of meals each year.  

TGTG is a social impact company on a mission to inspire and empower customers and food businesses to fight food waste together.  This also gives our students and staff an opportunity to enjoy good food at reduced prices. 

Waste management

We have two waste streams in all public areas – mixed recycling and general waste. We work closely with the local authority and our waste removal contractor to minimise environmental impact.

  • None of the waste from catering outlets goes to landfill. General waste is converted into fuel by the current waste disposal contractor.
  • All our waste cooking oil is taken offsite and converted into biodiesel for road transport and heat and power systems.
  • Cardboard from delivery packaging is compacted on site and recycled
  • Glass bottles from the events and delivered hospitality is recycled.
  • Food Waste from both food production and consumer food waste is collected and converted into agricultural fertilisers.
  • The service actively tries to reduce the use of single use plastics and offer customers incentives for using suitable alternatives.  All restaurants and cafes have ‘Eat-in’ glassware and chinaware and have recyclable/ compostable food and drink carrier options for those who choose to ‘Eat out’. The service switched to the latest award winning sustainable packaging by NotPla from August 2025. This is biodegradable plastic free packaging made from seaweed.  The service continues to offer a 10% discount on hot beverages if customer use their own re-usable mug.   The Service also partnered with Vytal Global and introduced a reusable cup and bowl scheme in September 2025 to reduce the amount of single use disposables going to landfill. The University is now one of Vytal’s highest performing locations in the UK having more than 20,000 checkouts and saved 2000 Kg of CO2 so far.      

Other Initiatives

    • New dishwashers, ovens and catering equipment is being phased in that are designed to minimise power and water usage.  
    • The service is currently using a range of environmentally friendly cleaning products and chemicals.

Objectives

The Catering Services Department has the following requirements for all food outlets and services provided:

  • The Service use nominated suppliers from within the approved TUCO supplier frameworks.
  • We offer Vegetarian or Vegan options at each service, and promotes National Vegetarian Week, Veganuary and healthy eating initiatives.
  • We use seasonal fresh vegetables and fruit from British suppliers.
  • We use British Free-Range Eggs, and meat that is produced according to high animal welfare standards like Red Tractor.
  • We serve MSC (Marine Stewardship council) and ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) certified sustainable fish.
  • We have been a Fairtrade supporter since 2011 and the Service will continue to promote the value of Fairtrade. It also supports the use of other ethically and sustainablysourced products including Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified products.
  • The service has achieved the Soil Association Food for Life Bronze Award and hopes to gain Silver/ Gold standards in the next year.  
  • Reduce food waste by using the our carbon footprint and monitor via the Cool Food Pro application and by selling food via the TooGoodToGo application.

Catering & Bar Services Manager, St. Mary’s University Twickenham.

Updated: May 2026