Sustainable Food

Fresh, home cooked food is top of the Catering team’s agenda, offering seasonal menus and changing dishes to use the best products in season, which ensures good flavour profiles and the ability to adjust if the seasons run late. The Catering department also aims to fully involve the student community in its sustainability mission through cooking sessions, sustainable cooking practices and limiting food waste.

The University of Chester is a member of The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) and has been for over 30 years. TUCO recognises that food and sundry commodity choices have the potential to influence a healthy lifestyle incorporating people, profit, and planet. The University uses TUCO nominated suppliers wherever possible, with sustainability being embedded into all their activities, including procurement and relevant documents. TUCO and its members meet regularly to discuss:

  • Sustainability initiatives.
  • Share best practice.
  • Develop sustainable principles.

Sustainable Food Procurement

The University’s Catering team endeavour, where possible, to use food suppliers with an ethical approach to foodservice with reduced packaging and box collection services. This includes:

  • Where possible, ensuring meat and dairy products are from ethical sources.
  • Making a commitment to only purchasing free-range products.
  • Sourcing fish from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) accredited fish stocks and maintaining an annual MCS certification, which is audited annually.
  • Increasing the number of plant-based menu items.
  • Working with local suppliers to reduce food miles and support local economies.
  • Adopting the ‘Better Chicken Commitment’ for some of the University’s supply chain.

Through using the TUCO framework and the University’s E-Procurement system with live pricing, the Catering team can monitor the products and their providence as well as looking at whether they are ethically sourced (such as Red Tractor and Farm Assured Meat).

Sustainable Food Accreditations & Awards

In 2025, the Catering team achieved the Bronze ‘Food for Life’ standard. Awarded by the Soil Association, this accreditation recognises that our Catering team provides and meets basic standards for healthy, ethical, and sustainable food at the Dining Hall.

The University is Vegetarian Society accredited, which requires rigorous evidence-based audits on the University’s menus, recipes, and ingredient supply chains.

Food waste from Exton Park’s catering outlets is directed to the bio food waste digester located at its central kitchen. This has resulted in a total of 49.54 tonnes of food waste being recycled into grey water in 2025-26.

Over the past 10 years, the Catering Services have made improvements to their operations to help reduce the amount of waste they produce. This includes:

  • Removing all disposable takeout boxes and replacing them with ‘Eco-to-Go’ multi-use boxes. This initiative won the Green Gown Award for Food & Drink in 2016.
  • Eliminating all plastic single use cups from University sites and opting to provide a ‘drop and swap’ multi use cup.
  • Reducing food waste through staff training and awareness around portion sizes, removing trays, and inventory management of pre-packed sandwiches.
  • Using bulk sauce dispensers for ketchup/mayonnaise to reduce individual sachets.
  • Facilitating a student-led waste project, which resulted in the introduction of smaller plates to decrease food waste.

These steps have been devised with an ethos centred around engagement, educating and rewarding to help normalise sustainable food behaviours throughout the University community.

Community Food

Some of our Catering outlets are now offering cost-effective canteen surprise bags for our staff and students via the Too Good to Go app. This initiative is designed to help with the cost of living and reduce food waste.

Each bag is available for collection between 2.30pm-3pm on weekdays. A bag costs £3.39 and is made up of a combination of hot and cold food, including wraps, sandwiches and cakes, which total around £10.   

Dependent on available stock, bags can be collected from the following sites:

  • Exton Park.
  • Kingsway
  • Queen’s Park.
  • Wheeler

For any questions, please email catering@chester.ac.uk or ask a member of staff at any of the above locations.

On Site Production

Our beehives produce honey, which is served in our residential dining room. The flowers we grow around the campus have been specially selected to provide an attractive environment for pollinators.

Collecting herbs, vegetables and apples grown on campus contribute to more sustainable food practices whilst also inspiring the Catering team with their dish creations. Additionally, these ingredients have been incorporated into initiatives such as “Just Cooking” sessions, enhancing the student experience by building confidence in cooking and budgeting skills.

A conservation campaign launched by Chester Zoo in 2019, the University became a champion of the initiative, which saw organisations across the city take steps to put in place a sustainable palm oil policy, switching products from unsustainable sources to sustainable ones.