With plan for organic products: Sustainable use of organic products in restaurants and canteens

Researchers at the University of Hohenheim develop Roadmap for organic products in the catering and hospitality

Food scares such as BSE have helped the organic boom in Germany to soar. But often the Bio-use is associated with problems and risks, so that restaurants and cafeterias often return to conventional products. Hohenheim researchers studied the reasons and now present a planning aid, which is designed to enable canteens, restaurants and Co., to make the right decisions in the organic planning. The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection funded the research project for three years.

The potential is great: The increasing number of consumers who obtain supplies at home with organic food, can outside the four walls, not be satisfactorily supplied with organic products frequently. Bio not yet heard in this area for long-term supply. Why is that and how the organic products should be designed to have long-term success, the Hohenheim researchers examined by Dr. Jana Rückert-John in a research project.

Organic alone is not enough

The Hohenheim scientists examined 26 companies that gave up or significantly reduced their organic offerings after the introduction, according to internal and external barriers and obstacles. Dr. Rückert-John: “Just looking at organic products is not enough. Rather, it has to be about sustainable nutrition that also focuses on other added values ​​such as regionality, seasonality and fair trade. Restaurants and canteens also have to face this challenge. "

To help people help themselves, Dr. Rückert-John and her team have come up with a guide to operational planning for the reintroduction or introduction of organic products: "The most important thing is to think through the decision for organic products well and not just swim with the organic wave."

Planning as a process

An example: communication. At the beginning of any planning, there should be a guest survey in the canteen, with the help of which the provider can find out about the motives, wishes and behavior of the customers. A communication strategy is developed on this basis - from the menu to training the service staff. If the guest survey shows, for example, that the price is a decisive barrier to the purchase of organic products, the company has to calculate: What percentage of organic is affordable? Does the supplier have to be changed?

The decision for organic influences four strategic areas of the operational organization: price, product, distribution and communication as well as environmental conditions that have to be considered. "For each area, the provider has to make individual decisions, which require a chain of further decisions," says Dr. Rückert-John.

"If conscious decisions are made in the planning process and problems are questioned on their basis, the probability is higher that the organic offer in a facility can be successful in the long term," summarizes the researcher.

The Hohenheim scientists now want to develop their planning aid into an organic guide with a checklist, which should help the farms to be successful in simple steps.

26 examples from practice

The scientists examined 13 restaurants and hotels as well as 13 communal catering facilities such as cafeterias, company canteens, catering companies and hospitals. What all companies have in common is that they have failed in the past due to the introduction of organic products.

For each company, the researchers carried out what is known as an organizational case study and examined business processes, menus and advertising material. The focus was on interviews with kitchen managers and other decision-makers. In addition, experts from advice centers were interviewed.

Background: BMELV research project as part of the federal organic farming program

The research project "Stabilizing the supply of organic food in out-of-home catering: Analysis of reasons for opting out and deriving preventive measures" was funded from 2007 to 2010 by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection as part of the federal organic farming program. One of the aims of the program is to stabilize and increase the proportion of organically produced products in out-of-home catering.

Source: Hohenheim [Uni]