Circular & sustainable food systems:
rethinking catering supply chains
By Richard Dowling, Sustainability Manager at allmanhall
For centuries, our food system has played a vital role in supporting economic growth, enhancing livelihoods, and nourishing an ever-expanding global population. Now, as awareness grows around the hidden costs of our current food production systems, there’s an exciting opportunity to rethink how we source, use, and value food. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, for every pound we spend on food, we face two pounds in environmental, health, and economic costs – a clear sign that there’s room for innovation and improvement in how our food systems function.
That’s where the concept of a circular economy and sustainable food systems come in – offering a forward-thinking, solutions focused alternative to today’s wasteful and resource-intensive models. By designing out waste and making better use of finite resources, we can build food systems that are not only more sustainable but also more resilient and cost-effective.
In catering – where food procurement meets practical, day-to-day operations – these principles are not just aspirational. Richard Dowling, allmanhall’s Sustainability Manager, shares inspiring examples of how these circular practices are already being applied at national, local, and organisational levels.
He outlines actionable strategies to reduce waste, lower costs, and support environmental goals – while strengthening the resilience of your supply chain. Even small steps can create meaningful change, driving both sustainability and long-term value.
Why move beyond the linear model?
Richard highlights that: “Much of our current food system still operates on a linear model: extract, produce, consume, discard.”
This approach depletes finite resources, pollutes ecosystems, and leads to enormous waste – both environmentally and financially – resulting in the gradual but substantial loss of our natural capital. Somewhat surprisingly, that hasn’t changed much since the industrial revolution.
Circularity, however, offers a very different approach. Its three core principles seek to:
- Eliminate waste and pollution
- Circulate products and materials
- Regenerate nature
When applied to food, this means producing, sourcing, and managing ingredients in a way that benefits both people and the planet. This is the essence of sustainable food systems, and it’s becoming increasingly relevant for caterers and finance teams who are balancing budgets, ESG goals, and stakeholder expectations.
A circular economy encourages sustainable food systems and offers the opportunity for organisations to gain a competitive advantage. Research has estimated that a fully circular economy in Europe could result in more than $1 trillion in revenue in 2050, while European consumer goods companies could access up to €500 billion by the end of the decade if they widely implemented circular business models. Indeed, the organisations that start implementing their ambitious ESG initiatives now will be the ones who are the most successful as we approach mid-century.
The value in circular thinking
Circularity means deliberately using less and creating long lasting and reuseable products from fewer resources.
To extend the period of use for materials, it’s important to find ways to reuse items, or alternatively to upcycle them for different uses. When thinking about our consumption habits in this way, throwing things away becomes the least favourable option. This is very relevant to food, particularly given the environmental impact of livestock production, but also because 30% of food produced globally is wasted.
This level of food waste has significant impacts on the UK economy, costing the country around £20 billion annually, while sending food to landfill costs UK food retailers around £51,000pa. The average UK household wastes £700 every year on food, while food businesses also suffer financially as a result of increased operating costs and lost revenue opportunities.
A circular economy has a vital role to play in our net zero transition.
Rethinking agriculture and food waste
Given the size of food’s environmental footprint, circularity has a big role to play in creating sustainable food systems.
Food waste is a particular problem because it generates huge amounts of methane when it decomposes in landfills. This is in addition to the greenhouse gas emissions released when producing the food, which are unnecessary given that the food hasn’t been eaten. In fact, one in four animals (around 18 billion) is killed for meat every year and not consumed, which is entirely avoidable.
As a result of this, some organisations use anaerobic digestion to convert waste food into biogas, through a process which is generally considered to be carbon neutral. Although there are some issues with the digestate by-product, the process is used to generate heat and electricity, as well as to power vehicles. This is just one way to use waste food, rather than leaving it to rot and release methane.
Alongside energy generation, certain types of agriculture have a role to play in a circular economy, with regenerative agriculture an approach to farming that supports sustainable food systems. A truly circular food system needs to ensure food security for all whilst also allowing natural capital to replenish at a sufficient rate.
Currently, conventional farming techniques rely on intensive monocultures, heavy pesticide use, and livestock production, all of which deplete the biodiversity on which agriculture depends. This is why regenerative agriculture, exemplified by Wildfarmed, one of allmanhall’s supply partners, incorporates practices like organic fertilisers, crop rotation systems, and cover crops, to produce food in a way that doesn’t damage the environment.
Alongside regenerative agriculture, integrated farming, which aims to diversify production and adopt sustainable practices based on a circular economy model, is also gaining traction.
Urbanisation and the changing landscape
Another factor to consider is humanity’s increasing levels of urbanisation. Currently, just over half of the world’s population lives in cities, but this is expected to rise to around 68% by 2050. Although growing populations inherently lead to higher levels of emissions, urbanisation offers the potential to reduce emissions per capita, while providing schools and other organisations with new opportunities to get involved with sustainability.
Through measures such as rooftop gardens, composting programmes, and vertical farming, a significant proportion of our food could be generated with a much lower land and environmental footprint than with conventional agriculture. It could also provide benefits to local communities, including enhancing the aesthetics of urban environments, promoting well being, supporting biodiversity, and offering climate benefits.
Some of allmanhall’s supply partners are already gaining benefits from rolling out programmes based on the principles of circularity:
- Oliver Kay Produce use compostable trays, while organic waste is left for composting and is collected by farmers.
- Olleco collects food waste for anaerobic digestion, generating renewable energy and organic fertiliser.
- Bidfood have cut food waste sent to landfill by 92% in six years, as part of their mid-term goal of reducing food waste by 63% in 2030.
More inhabitants in urban areas can also mitigate consumption-based emissions by enabling more efficient infrastructure and energy use. The greater the proportion of people who live in urban areas, the more land we will have left, which we can then choose to use in ways that ensure our long-term food security and alleviate our nature and climate problems.
Given this, it’s encouraging to see a variety of urban schools in London using urban agriculture and the creation of wildlife corridors to tackle food inequality and poor health. These initiatives help educate children on where their food comes from, as well as on the importance of healthy and sustainable diets.
These initiatives are all important, given that the UK currently uses 40% of its most productive land to grow crops for livestock in intensive monocultures, which damage the environment and provide minimal benefit to humans. Ensuring our long-term food security depends on enacting substantial changes in the way we use our land.
A UK perspective: innovation in action
Across the UK, there are growing signs of progress. The most notable example is the country’s renewable energy consumption, which continues to increase, and generated over 50% of the UK’s electricity for the first time last year. The country’s levels of repair service availability and recycling have also increased, which helps reduce levels of inflation alongside the environmental benefits.
At a more local level, organisations like Forest Green Rovers are also implementing circular economy principles. For the 2025/26 season in the Enterprise National League, they’ve partnered with Reflo to provide playing kits made from recycled plastic, which are designed to be recycled at the end of their lifecycle. Alongside Luton Town, they’re one of the first two football clubs in England to provide such kits. Additionally, the club captures rainwater from the stadium roof at the New Lawn and uses it to irrigate the pitch, while they also clean and repurpose water from the fans’ toilets for further irrigation. On top of this, plans are also underway for Eco Park, which will be made entirely from wood and will have the lowest carbon footprint of any stadium.
Forest Green Rovers are also the world’s first vegan football club, and through their partnership with allmanhall, they provide delicious, sustainable, and cost-effective plant-rich meals to their fans and visitors.
When it comes to food, innovations range from seaweed based packaging alternatives to food-sharing platforms, which are helping reimagine how we source and consume food:
- Goterra use black fly larvae to manage food waste and create insect protein.
- Olio allow users to give away food and household items they no longer need to people in their local community, providing significant financial and environmental benefits as more people get involved.
- To Good To Go offer users the opportunity to collect discounted food from a variety of different outlets which would otherwise have been thrown away.
- Notpla have created an innovative alternative to single-use plastic food containers, through the use of seaweed.
While these examples are promising, they also highlight the importance of continued effort and collaboration. Whether you’re in a school, hospital, care home, or hospitality setting, building a more sustainable operation is not only possible – it’s increasingly expected.
Getting started with sustainable change
The shift to sustainable food systems doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start by looking at your current supply chain: where are the inefficiencies? Where is waste generated? What opportunities exist to use data, partnerships, or new practices to improve outcomes?
Small steps, like choosing more sustainable ingredients, reducing waste, or introducing carbon-labelling, can create real momentum. These changes, while operational, reflect a much bigger picture: a food system that works for everyone, for the long term.
Sustainable ingredients can transform both your menu and your budget, providing cost-effective swaps:
- Replace a beef burger with a plant-based alternatives to slash your burger’s carbon footprint by over 90%. For example, a standard beef burger generates around 5.77 kg CO₂e, while plant-rich patties such as allmanhall’s Brighter Burger produce just 0.34 kg CO₂e, which is about 6% of the impact.
- Use allmanhall’s Hero Recipes (here and here) to provide you with dishes that maximise flavour and nutrition without breaking your budget.
- Introduce innovative solutions to meat-free eating. Supplied to our clients by Vegetarian Express, and made from just three ingredients (pea and fava bean protein, and salt), the Eat Curious range of dehydrated products are stored ambient, so they are affordable, often more cost- effective than animal proteins, and when hydrated, have a carbon footprint of just over 1 kg CO2e/kg of product.
Reducing waste can be as simple as using your leftover onion skins as a seasoning. Jamie Clews of Metcalfe Catering suggests making onion salt to add that little extra to any dish. You can also add garlic skins or go one step further and cold smoke them before cooking. To make this you need to:
1. Wash and dry the skins if needed.
2. Roast in an oven or air fryer until golden and crisp. In an air fryer this normally takes 8-10 minutes at 180°C, although it may take a little longer in a traditional oven. If you have a fan-assisted oven or are using an air fryer, make sure to place a cooling rack on top of the skins. Otherwise, they will blow around.
3. Once cooked and cooled, simply blend these to a fine powder and add to a good quality salt.
4. Now simply experiment to see what this new seasoning can add to your dishes.
Carbon labelling helps you to make informed, sustainable choices. Through allmanhall’s partnership with Foodsteps, you can assess the carbon impact of your recipes, track progress, and communicate clearly using ratings, labels, and posters. It’s a practical tool to support better menu decisions, engage diners, and help you meet your sustainability goals.
Leading the way in sustainable food systems: recognition, results, and real impact
allmanhall are proud to have been named Best Sustainable Food Procurement Solution for the fifth consecutive year – a testament to the meaningful and measurable difference our work is making for clients across the UK.
Being awarded Gold by EcoVadis and ranked in the top 2% of businesses globally reinforces our unwavering commitment to responsible procurement. We believe passionately that good food shouldn’t cost the Earth – and we’re proving that belief through action, not just words.
Our approach to delivering truly sustainable food systems is underpinned by transparency, collaboration, and results. Whether it’s through reducing waste, improving sourcing, or delivering consolidated billing with real-time insights, we’re here to support your sustainability goals every step of the way.
Watch our video to learn more about how allmanhall are driving sustainable and responsible food procurement.
Ready to make a change? Contact us now to discover how our award-winning solutions can help you create a more resilient, ethical, and sustainable food system.