Until the year of 2025, 60% more organic products are to be used in the sector of collective catering. This is the demand of the association of Austrian organic farmers Bio Austria, with reference to a study they conducted with employees of public and private facilities for collective catering. Currently, 30% of public kitchens are using organic products.
Austrian catering businesses show a distinct awareness for quality foods, Bio Austria's poll and the association for the promotion of foodstuffs with higher quality (VQL) suggest. 95% of the respondents working in public and private catering facilities from all over Austria buy organic foods, an 89% shop for products with the AMA-quality label. The most important argument for that decision is the Quality (80% for organic products, 83% for AMA-label).
Choice of organic foods for catering often fails due to price
High cost pressure often gets in the way of usage of high quality products, especially organic foods, explains Bio Austria representative Gertraud Grabmann, and VQL project manager Anita Gruber and catering expert Claus Holler.
"There is a legal anchorage for choosing the economically most advantageous bid, which is a right step, but is not changing much in practice. Because in the end, the available budgets decide on whether the foods with best quality are used or not," says Grabmann. The initiators refer to Denmark, where, by using public investments and through training, the sales of bio-products tripled in just five years. Austria would need, according to the Danish model, clear political priorities.
Customers in Austria know their quality labels
The generally wide awareness of quality foodstuffs in the collective catering industry is mirrored in a wide knowledge of domestic quality labels, says Holler. 99% will recognize the AMA-quality label, over 90% will recognize popular bio-labels in food retail, and over 80% of respondents knew the Bio Austria association mark and 71% knew the AMA-organic label.
When it comes to EU-labels, there was a lot of room for improvements: EU-Bio-Label 56%, secured geographical information 21%, secured name of origin 27%, guaranteed traditional specialty 10%.
Source: biomarkt.info