The public sector catering landscape is constantly evolving, driven by shifting Government priorities, so it is hugely important that industry leaders understand the overarching national food strategies.
Two distinct but related approaches have recently been laid out: the Scottish Government’s Proposed National Good Food Nation Plan and the UK Government’s Food Strategy for England (2025).
While both documents share common goals, their tone, scope, and underlying philosophies reveal different priorities that will have a direct impact on how we source, prepare, and serve food.
They represent roadmaps that will affect procurement, menu design, staffing and workplace practices, as well as expectations about the contribution of catering to wider social, economic, and environmental goals.
So let us take a look at the two strategies side by side, highlighting their common ground, contrasts, and what they mean for those charged with providing food in schools, hospitals, prisons, and other public settings across the UK.
Shared Ground: Food as Foundation
Despite differences in presentation, both strategies start from the same principle: food is foundational. It sustains health, strengthens communities, and underpins economies.
Both Governments acknowledge that the food system is currently failing on multiple fronts: obesity and diet-related ill health are rising, supply chains are fragile, food insecurity is deepening, and environmental pressures are intensifying.
It is made explicit in each strategy that whole-system transformation is required. Food touches on our health, trade, environment, education, and culture. And success depends on joined-up approaches across departments of Government and close collaboration with industry, civil society, and communities.
Both see catering services as crucial enablers - able to shift food environments, support healthier choices, and promote sustainable practices at scale.
England’s Strategy: Patriotism, Growth, and the ‘Good Food Cycle’
The UK Government’s Food Strategy for England presents food in strongly patriotic and economic terms. Food is portrayed not just as sustenance but as a marker of national pride and identity.
Farmers, fishermen, and food workers are celebrated as custodians of the countryside and coastlines, performing a patriotic service.
Its strategy document outlines three interconnected crises:
- Health: 64% of adults overweight or obese, one in ten children obese on school entry, obesity-related illnesses costing the NHS £11.4bn annually.
- Environment: Food responsible for 38% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, a major driver of biodiversity loss, with environmental costs often hidden from market prices.
- Resilience: Rising food inflation (36% between 2021–25), reliance on imports for 35% of food, and exposure to global shocks from climate change and geopolitics.
These problems, the strategy argues, are reinforced by damaging feedback loops: the ‘junk food cycle’, the ‘invisibility of nature’, and the ‘resilience gap’. With those concerns in mind, the Government’s vision is to build a 21st-century food system that:
- Provides affordable, nutritious food for all
- Strengthens the economy through innovation and exports
- Restores ecosystems and reduces emissions
- Builds resilience to shocks and stabilises food supply
- Celebrates British food culture
The ‘Good Food Cycle’
At the heart of England’s strategy is the concept of a ‘good food cycle’, a virtuous circle that links consumer health, business growth, environmental sustainability, and resilience.
In such a system businesses invest in healthier, sustainable food; consumers access affordable, appealing choices; then healthier diets improve population health and productivity; as a result a more productive economy reinvests in sustainable practices; and finally resilient supply chains reduce vulnerability to shocks.
Ten Outcomes
The vision is based on ten, interconnected outcomes, including: healthier and more affordable food, a transformed food environment, sustainable growth, fair supply chains, skilled labour, sustainable production and trade, resilient domestic supply, cultural celebration of food, and improved knowledge and skills.
The implications for public sector catering leaders are clear.
Procurement expectations will grow around sourcing British produce, particularly fruit and vegetables.
Menu design will need to align more closely with health goals (lower sugar, salt, and fat) while staying affordable.
Sustainability success will become increasingly important, with pressure to reduce waste and demonstrate progress towards Net Zero goals.
And the development and adoption of technical innovation - from alternative proteins to digital procurement systems - will be incentivised as part of the growth agenda.
England’s strategy, in short, seeks to harness patriotism, economic strength, and innovation to break negative cycles and create a healthier, sustainable, and ‘proudly British’ food system.
Scotland’s Plan: Dignity, Community,
and Collective Stewardship
Meanwhile, Scotland’s proposed National Good Food Nation Plan strikes a different note. It also recognises the economic and cultural importance of food, but its language could be described as more holistic, rights-based, and community-centred.
In introducing the Plan in June, Cabinet Secretary Mairi Gougeon MSP emphasised that food sustains not only bodies but also ‘relationships, emotions, and cultural identity’.
She said that food sits at the heart of Scotland’s coastal and rural communities, supporting livelihoods and traditions.
Pressures on the Food System
As in England, Scotland acknowledges supply chain fragility revealed by Brexit, the pandemic, and global conflicts. It highlights climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity as urgent long-term challenges.
But the emphasis differs, preferring to focus on ‘dignified access to food’ as a key goal that is framed as a ‘matter of fairness and rights’.
Vision of a Good Food Nation
The plan offers six key aims:
- Universal access to healthy, affordable food, with dignity
- Food environments that support better choices and improve health outcomes
- A thriving food industry delivering fair work and innovation
- Reversing biodiversity loss and achieving Net Zero
- Flourishing rural and coastal communities through local food economies
- Iterative and Collective Delivery, which means collaborative and repeated efforts to get better at achieving the outcomes
Unlike England’s growth-driven ‘campaign’, Scotland describes its plan as long-term and ‘iterative’, with idea being that future versions will build on this first foundation.
Delivery is framed as collective stewardship, with Government, industry, civil society, and communities working together. Every meal, Gougeon notes, reflects ‘countless interdependent actions across the system’.
Implications for Caterers
For public sector catering leaders in Scotland the Plan points towards a stronger integration of local sourcing to support rural and coastal economies.
It will demand catering provision that ‘upholds dignity in access’, particularly in settings serving vulnerable groups such as young children and the elderly. It will also want to see caterers embedding sustainability and Net Zero goals into their procurement and menu planning.
And catering teams across the country will be expected to play a role as partners in community-level collaboration that helps to shape food environments beyond simply the food on the plate. Scotland’s Plan, in short, seems to be less about driving growth and more about embedding fairness, dignity, and resilience into everyday food practices.
What are the differences?
The most striking contrast between the two food policies is in tone. England frames food as a national strength and almost a patriotic duty, with strong economic and cultural rhetoric. Its strategy leans heavily on growth, innovation, and competitiveness.
Scotland, though, frames food as a right and community asset, and puts much more emphasis on dignity, collective responsibility, and the stewardship of natural resources. While both, obviously, recognise the same challenges, they clearly tell very different stories about how to address them.
Economic Growth v Social Justice
Economic ambition is central to England’s strategy. Growth, trade, and productivity gains are seen as enablers of better diets and sustainability. While it also supports food industry success, Scotland’s plan places equal emphasis on fair work, community resilience, and social justice.
For catering leaders in England this looks likely to means pressure to embrace innovation, efficiency, and productivity gains. In Scotland, though, there will be more accountability for social outcomes such as supporting local jobs and addressing the issue of food insecurity.
Both strategies acknowledge food insecurity, but their wording differs, with England linking it to affordability and resilience, and a focus on cost-of-living crises and supply chain stability.
Scotland sees it more as a core challenge, its plan highlighting the idea that dignified access to food is a long-term vision and responsibility.
Such differences mean that for public sector caterers this may shape procurement and menu choices differently - affordability and resilience in England; dignity and rights in Scotland.
Delivery Mechanisms:
Industry-Led vs. Partnership-Based
The strategy for England relies heavily on industry-led transformation, with Government providing regulatory stability and trade opportunities. Scotland, meanwhile, emphasises cross-sector partnership that brings together Government, industry, civil society, and local communities.
For catering teams this suggests that in England there will be closer alignment with private-sector innovations, with trade policies, and with productivity targets. In Scotland, teams will be encouraged to deepen engagement with community partnerships and local Government initiatives.
Implications for Public Sector Catering
Across both nations, public sector catering sits squarely in the crosshairs of the aim to turn strategy into practice.
- Healthier meals: Both strategies prioritise reducing obesity and improving diets. Caterers will be expected to lead by example - designing menus that are nutritious, appealing, and affordable.
- Sustainability: Net Zero and biodiversity goals are shared. This will increase pressure to reduce food waste, cut carbon footprints, and favour sustainable sourcing.
- Local economies: Scotland places particular emphasis on supporting rural and coastal food systems, but England, too, highlights regional food cultures. Caterers will be expected to play a key role in strengthening local sourcing and supply chains.
- Dignity and fairness: Scotland’s explicit, rights-based approach may extend expectations around catering provision, ensuring not just access but dignified experiences for service users.
- Resilience: Both strategies recognise vulnerability to shocks and supply chain disruption. Catering leaders will be expected to build flexibility into supply chains and menus, balancing affordability, availability, and sustainability.
Converging Goals, Diverging Paths?
England and Scotland’s food strategies both recognise the urgent need to reshape the food system to be healthier, fairer, more sustainable, and more resilient.
Both see food as central to national identity, culture, and prosperity. Despite this, it is clear that their outcomes, if met, will begin to see slightly divergent paths taken as time goes by.
England’s strategy is patriotic, economic, and innovation-driven, with an emphasis on industry-led growth and the creation of a ‘good food cycle’. Scotland’s plan is community-centred, rights-based, and iterative, emphasising dignity, local economies, and collective stewardship. Nevertheless, for public sector catering leaders, the message is clear: the sector is central to both visions.
Whether through procurement, menu design, waste management, or community engagement, caterers will be expected to deliver healthier, sustainable, and fairer food at scale. The details differ, but the direction is shared: public catering is no longer just about feeding people—it is about shaping the future of the food system itself.