The SAPIENS Network is excited to announce its contribution to the book Sustainable Food Procurement. Legal, Social, and Organisational Challenges, co-edited by experts Mark Stein, Maurizio Mariani, Roberto Caranta and Yiannis Polychronakis and published on February 23, 2024, by Routledge.

This topical book examines sustainable food procurement policy, law and practice in the European Union and beyond, exploring the extent to which sustainability objectives have been achieved and evaluating the new developments taking place at both EU and national levels.

The volume features 14 chapters, covering sustainable public catering in three EU Member States – Italy, France and Spain, a comparative survey of the Baltic Region, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland and Russia, and moving beyond the EU, an analysis of the UK and Brazil, as well as a cross-country comparison of the UK with Denmark and Sweden.

Drawing on the expertise of an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral team of authors, this book offers readers new approaches for creating value through public food purchasing and contributes to the global discussion on public food procurement to achieve multiple social and environmental goals.

The book features the following contributions from SAPIENS Network members:

• Lead Researcher and Network Coordinator, Prof. Roberto Caranta, authored the chapter titled The impact of the “Farm to Fork” strategy on sustainable food and catering procurement;

• Lead Researcher, Associate Prof. Marta Andhov, co-authored the chapter Transforming food systems. The role of public procurement;

• Lead Researcher, Associate Prof. Andrea Appolloni, co-authored the chapter Sustainable public food procurement in Italy. Minimum Environmental Criteria and definitions of sustainability;

• Early-Stage Researcher 15, Chiara Falvo, authored the open-access chapter Sustainable public food procurement in Brazilian schools. An obligation under and beyond the National School Feeding Programme (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar – PNAE)

Chiara’s chapter shows how Brazil’s institutional food procurement programmes stand as strategic and comprehensive public policies for combating hunger and poverty and promoting rural and sustainable development. Specifically, it delves into the legal framework governing public food procurement for Brazil’s National School Feeding Programme (PNAE). While the PNAE is funded by the national government, its management is decentralised to the level of individual municipalities or even schools. School menus are developed by professional nutritionists based on nutritional requirements, use of raw or minimally processed foods, and respecting seasonality and local food culture. The law provides for a set-aside mechanism and a special procedure aimed at encouraging the purchasing of food from family farmers, with preference also for organic or agroecological food. By including a wide range of sustainability requirements connected to which food to purchase, from whom to source it and how to purchase it, the PNAE represents an interesting case study for examining how the legal framework may support the strategic use of public food procurement to advance multiple sustainability objectives.