Get ready to meet the new School Food Standards

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced a major update to the School Food Standards . This is the first change to the standards since their introduction more than a decade ago.

These standards cover food across the school day including breakfast, breaks and lunchtime. They will become mandatory for all schools in England from the start of the next school year in September 2027.

You don’t have to wait until then though. If your food supply or catering services contracts are up for renewal before September 2027 you should review your options with a view to incorporating the new standards.

The good news is you don’t have to do this alone. We have plenty of guidance and support to help you through the process.

Get help buying for schools

Get help buying for schools (GHBS) is the DfE’s procurement-support service for schools.

The service offers a choice of approved frameworks for the procurement of food supplies and catering services alongside expert advice to guide you through the buying process.

Bespoke support for your school is available from the start to the end of the procurement process, entirely free of charge and delivered by expert DfE procurement staff. They can:

offer advice and guidance to make sure you're buying compliantly at any point, even if your procurement process is already in progress review your documents to make sure they're complete and compliant. This includes advice on specification documents, tender documents and evaluation criteria support you on choosing or using a framework agreement for your procurement advise when you need to seek legal advice

Accessing the service couldn’t be easier. Simply fill in a short form to get in touch.

DfE-approved food and catering buying routes

Our approved frameworks offer both traditional outsourced catering services and food-only options if your school or trust wishes to staff and manage its catering service in house.

Many of the frameworks are provided by public sector buying organisations (PSBOs) run by groups of local authorities. They offer frameworks that cover everything you need - from caterers who can supply your full food service through to kitchen equipment and vending machines.

Also included is the Government Commercial Agency’s own Buying Better Food and Drink framework. This unique framework is especially useful for schools who are considering bringing their provision in house, offering a supply-chain manager who will help you buy the food you need reliably and at a competitive price.

All our frameworks offer significant advantages including:

pre-approved supplier lists a shorter and less burdensome procurement process pre-filled documents better value for most schools than they may otherwise get if running their own procurement What you can do now

To find out more about the frameworks, how they can help your school and how you can access them, please sign up to our Food and Catering Buying Solutions Power Hour, which will be delivered online on 13 October . This will be recorded and a link shared with those who register after the session.

In the meantime, you can take these other simple steps to make sure you are prepared for the new School Food Standards  becoming mandatory in September 2027:

fully familiarise yourself with the standards and make sure all relevant staff at your school or trust do the same review any food and catering contracts to see when they are up for renewal contact your current caterer to make sure they are aware of the new standards and are prepared for September 2027 ensure the new standards are factored into any relevant new procurement watch recordings of our previous Power Hours on school food policy funding and buying school food and catering services

https://buyingforschools.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/14/get-ready-to-meet-the-new-school-food-standards/

seen at 18:32, 14 September in Maximising Value for Pupils (Max VP).