Borough Market makes sustainability commitments with new policy

London’s world-famous Borough Market has published its new Food Policy, created to provide an aligned approach to food in all parts of the Market’s operations.

The move adds clarity to the Market’s fundamental principles and will set standards for quality, environmental sustainability, social and economic sustainability, animal welfare, knowledge and transparency, opportunity, health, variety and accessibility. These principles will be applied not just to the food sold by the traders but to everything that happens at the Market.

Borough Market says the policy is underpinned by its belief that it “should provide the opportunity for people of all backgrounds to buy the fresh ingredients and minimally processed products that underpin a healthy diet”.

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.

“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,” said Shane Holland, Borough Market Trustee and Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK.

Developed over a three-year period, the Food Policy was established in two phases. The first phase included research, surveys, focus groups, conferences and interviews with and between traders and stakeholders, to establish the need for a Food 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.

Ruth Westcott, Campaign Co-ordinator from food and farming alliance Sustain, added: “We welcome Borough Market’s new food policy which includes a great vision for how the market should operate responsibly for the environment and the community.”