All meat is from farms which satisfy UK animal welfare standards, serving red tractor meat only, with the exception of cured meats. All fresh eggs are from free-range hens. No fish is served from the Marine Conservation Society ‘fish to avoid list’. Lancaster University is the first Higher Education institute in the country to adopt the Freshkeg Smart Milk system, which saves thousands of plastic milk bottles from being used on campus. Dairy-free alternative milk is available in all outlets.

Local and seasonal fruit and vegetables are used for conferencing and catered accommodation menus. Conference lunch menus focus on plant-based ingredients. Daily Pre-school Vegan lunch options are provided free from all the 14 major allergens. Vegan and vegetarian options are available at all outlets and we have prioritised plant-based and vegetarian food options on hospitality menus.

Free drinking water is available in all units along with water fountains on our campus. We serve fair-trade or ethically sourced tea and coffee across campus, with most of our tea and coffee sourced from a local company, Carringtons Coffee Co. We offer a keep cup scheme with a "latte levy" for using takeaway cups. All disposable coffee cups UK manufactured and biodegradable in 90 days

We work with the BSI 14001 minimum standard – wastewater, disposing of oil and recycling responsibly. Our campus catering deliveries are made using electric vans reducing CO2 emissions. We are reducing deliveries from our major suppliers onto campus to 3 days per week to reduce CO2 emissions. All consumables are fully recyclable.

We’ve shifted our marketing activity away from printed materials into almost exclusively digital assets, changing from paper to digital feedback forms. We’ve also introduced a digital system in our kitchens to cut back on paper wastage; our kitchen team now use a live digital screen for schedules and menus, instead of printing them.

The University is committed to delivering an exciting choice of tasty, convenient, nutritional and sustainable food at a range of prices to enhance the student, staff and visitor experience. This policy covers all food outlets and food served on the University campus.

We follow five key principles:

1. Choice: Ensure a range of university-operated, national brands, local businesses, and temporary food and drink offers to meet the range of cultural, dietary, and lifestyle needs of our students, staff, and visitors.
2. Safe: Ensuring that University food operations produce and supply food to the highest safety standards including for customers with allergies and intolerances. To ensure that all operators on campus have a minimum 4-star environmental health rating.
3. Price Range: Ensure that the range of choices for students and staff meets their varied budgets and in particular, that affordable choice is available.
4. Supply Chain: The University will engage with tenants and food suppliers on campus to improve the sustainability of their product offer. Internally, sustainability standards are embedded in tenders and contracts to drive improvements within the University’s supply chain.
5. Engagement: Educating our university community to understand how food and the choices they make have in creating healthy and sustainable lifestyles. This will be supported by engaging with relevant internal and external stakeholders to stay abreast of best practice in food sustainability.

To support continuous improvement in each of these five principles, we will in the 2024/25 academic year implement the following actions:

1. Choice

• Highlight under 600 calorie options on menus
• Increase gluten free options to 30% across retail menus
• Increase non-meat options to 50% across retail menus

2. Safe

• Introduce searchable online allergy information for all menus.

3. Price Range

• Conduct regular price reviews with Pelican procurement to ensure value for money
• Review range of ‘cheap eats’ products and availability across campus of lower cost food and drink.

4. Supply Chain

• Remove single use plastic from milk supply across campus using FreshKeg system
• Reduce single use plastic from front of house service, including cling film
• Introduce reusable takeaway containers in retail outlets
• Review external catering contractors used by Hospitality.
• Implement a policy to purchase products that only contain sustainably sourced palm oil wherever possible.

5. Engagement

• Carbon impact of menu items to be indicated.
• Include access to information on calorie, macro-nutrient and ingredient information across all menus
• Gain SRA accreditation for sustainability across all University Retail outlets.
• Produce an Annual Report to update our stakeholders on progress against each of the five key principles.

• Prioritised plant-based and vegetarian diets on hospitality menu.
• All eggs are free-range
• Where possible, all meat should be Farm Assured and locally sourced.
• No fish to be served from the MSC fish to avoid list
• Reduced the impact of food waste by utilising the “too good to go” platform
• Collaborate with University initiatives around food sustainability and affordability such as “ecoeats”, supper clubs, and college food events
• Prioritised the sourcing of ingredients within 30 miles to reduce the carbon footprint associated with transportation
• Promoted seasonal menus for conferences and hospitality to further reduce the environmental impact of food production and transportation
• Charge 20p for a disposable coffee cup to encourage reusable coffee cup use
• All disposable coffee cups UK manufactured and biodegradable in 90 days
• Reusable polycarbonate cups used in the bars on a deposit basis, replacing single-use plastic cups
• Achieve “Allergen Accreditation” across all University-operated food outlets and internal hospitality and conference
• Ensure staff are trained to handle special dietary requests with care and attention
• Clear labelling of all allergens and ingredients in line with specific regulations e.g. Natasha's Law
• Independently audit allergen procedures across campus every two years
• All University outlets to have a minimum food safety level 4. Anything below is investigated and action plan in place to improve and re-test
• Increased weighting of sustainable and ethical practice measures on all future food tenders from 10% to 15%
• Worked with Pelican procurement in the pursuit of net positive supply chain, regularly reviewing contracted KPI’s Removed nuts and nut products from Conferences and Hospitality (still serve may contains)