Borough Market publishes new Food Policy

London's Borough Market has unveiled its new Food Policy, developed to provide a cohesive approach to food across the market's operations. 

The policy builds on the venue's reputation for supporting sustainability and providing high-quality, responsibly sourced food. The aim is to give clarity to the market's fundamental principles, setting standards for quality, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, knowledge and transparency, opportunity, health, variety and accessibility.

With immediate effect, all new trader applications will need to demonstrate a commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Meanwhile, the market's operations team will support existing traders to align with the policy over the coming months and years. 

Developed over a three-year period, the Food Policy was established in two phases. The first comprised of research, surveys, focus groups, conferences and interviews with and between traders and stakeholders, to establish the need for a policy and what it should include. The second phase saw Borough Market staff join forces with trustees Shane Holland, executive chairman of Slow Food in the UK, and Claire Pritchard, CEO of the Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency and Chair of the London Food Board, to draft, review and amend the policy. 

Holland comments: "Many of the policy's principles can already be seen in practice across the market, but as a forward-thinking Trust that has long set the pace for the wider food industry, we don't want to rest on our laurels. We know that there is still work to be done to ensure that these principles are applied meaningfully, consistently and transparently across the whole of Borough Market. Once this has been done, the results should prove hugely beneficial to the Market's customers, traders, tenants, staff and trustees."

As a next step, Borough Market will set new standards for each category of food available at the market over the coming months and years, which will apply to all traders, catered food traders and guest traders.

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