Public procurement of food in Austria from a sustainability perspective

The sustainable procurement of food for public institutions is subject to various procurement law requirements at EU and national level. With the amendment of the European public procurement law in 2004, the possibility was created to consider environmental and social criteria in addition to price in public tenders. This paper presents the results of an explorative mixed-methods study that investigated the practice of sustainable food procurement in the public sector in Austria. In the quantitative survey, the volume of public procurement of food in the upper threshold range (> 100,000 euros) was analyzed for the first time, and in the qualitative survey, 12 experts were interviewed about decision-making in procurement with regard to environmental and social criteria. In their entirety, the results illustrate how strongly decentralized the procurement strategies for food in Austria are. The coexistence of politically articulated, yet numerous and partly competing procurement goals at the federal and state levels leaves the interpretation of procurement goals to a large extent to the decentralized contracting authorities. In any case, a more centralized political strategy at the higher level could ensure a more coordinated procurement practice.