The European Heart Network (EHN) responded to the European Commission’s open consultation on the revision of the EU Public Procurement Directives.
The European Heart Network (EHN) calls for the food sector to be explicitly recognised as a strategic sector in the revision of the EU Public Procurement Directives, enabling health-driven procurement, quality-based awarding and sustainable sourcing. Food is not a commodity like any other: public procurement decisions directly shape food environments in schools, hospitals and other public institutions, with long-term consequences for population health.
Unhealthy diets are a major driver of cardiovascular disease in Europe, contributing to over 1.5 million deaths each year. Strategic public procurement of healthy food can improve dietary patterns through nutritional standards, local sourcing and sustainability criteria, in line with EU commitments under the Safe Hearts Plan and existing EU guidance on sustainable food procurement.
Prioritising quality over prize would allow public procurement to prioritise health outcomes, as it would effectively limit lowest-price awarding and ensure a more balanced, sustainability-oriented procurement approach that can benefit people’s health, thus ensuring that public money is used for public good
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