The Source

Alexia Robinson, Love British Food Founder:

“There is a huge appetite across the entire public sector to ‘buy British’ - it’s all about inspiring and enabling both public sector caterers and farmers/suppliers to make British food first supplier of choice. Buyers, whether in the NHS, Local Authorities or universities, must be encouraged to consider where their food comes from and how the way the food is produced contributes to delivering on the many targets they are being set. Everyone on the day agreed that the best way of meeting these targets - net zero, sustainability, social value – is to prioritise buying British and ask their suppliers to provide as much British food as possible. There is also an acceptance that more needs to be done to encourage farmers to view this sector as a customer. We do not produce enough food in this country to meet the full public sector requirement so there is a clear business opportunity.

We need a universal commitment from across the food service to put British farmers first. A big, but realistic aim, as looking at the enthusiasm of everyone who attended there is common agreement on this. Love British Food and our partners have already moved the public sector dial on this - we aim to push it even further. I wonder if the time is right to propose a Buy British category in all food service provider food listings; similar to the Buy British button that many multiples are adopting.”

“Events like this one generate a much-needed debate, with serious players in public sector catering. We know that Government won’t act with the pace or impact required, so we will do it ourselves.”

Phil Shelley, Chair NHS Food Review and National Lead for Net Zero Food, NHS England:

“This was the first time that public sector leaders, providers, suppliers and farmers have gathered together to discuss the supply chain. Momentum is building as we in the public sector, want to buy more British food.

I hope this event gave farmers the confidence to invest in supplying the public sector and helped all the buyers who attended understand the true value of buying British. There were plenty of frank discussions. What better place to have them, than on a farm. Thank you to Love British Food for organising.”

Tim Radcliffe, Net Zero food programme manager at NHS England

"We need to embrace our British produce. We need to ensure that the food we serve reflects our culinary heritage and embraces our farming community. We have great producers of food here. We have great producers of food in this country. What we need to do is ensure it gets onto hospital menus. This is an amazing event!”

Cathy Amos, Brakes Head of Customer Marketing 

“We’ve supported Love British Food for eight years now and we supply everybody with loads of great British produce and meats and poultry and we do everything we can to work with seasonality, we buy direct from growers, we buy direct from farmers, and we have lots of local small suppliers for our cheese and dairy and breads. So, it’s our ambition to grow our British offering, we want to work with more people and we want to support everybody to understand the importance of supporting the British and everything we produce and grow.”