Overview

Copenhagen is leveraging municipal procurement to encourage a shift towards healthy and sustainable diets. The city has begun training its kitchen staff in shifting to nutritious, organic, and more climate friendly meals in over 546 public kitchens - and is working with a culinary advisor to expand these training sessions to as many kitchens as possible by the end of 2024. Copenhagen has also launched over 900 climate friendly recipes developed for large kitchens (from 20–100 servings), and tailored to three different target groups – children, adults, and the elderly. The recipes are publicly available online and used regularly in communication and consultation with the kitchens. Finally, in 2023, the city launched a strategy which requires large events hosted or supported by the city to always provide a vegetarian meal option, as well as a higher percentage of organic food, and to present measures to reduce food waste. 

Next steps

The Municipality of Copenhagen has partnered with the EU Commission department on Health and Food Safety to launch a European Food Procurement Network, aiming to spread innovative and sustainable procurement practices across Europe.

For more information contact: Tia Schwab tschwab@c40.org