The eating out guide: Catering for ethics?

Eating out is one of the trends most profoundly affecting the food system, yet most of us know little about the industry that wields such an influence on our lives. The Winter '08 edition of Food Ethics is an eating out guide with a difference.

The guide looks at the problems around catering and then at the solutions. It explores what makes eating out different from eating at home – are the challenges facing the ‘food service’ industry down to the food, to the service or both?

Alan Maryon-Davis (President of the Faculty of Public Health) reminds us that the food we eat outside the home is on average fattier, saltier and more sugary than what we eat at home, and calls for fast food chains to encourage healthy eating as a priority. Neville Rigby, a writer and consultant on health advocacy, examines the growth of western-style fast food in developing countries, and Tony Royle, author of Working for McDonald’s in Europe, argues that work in the fast food industry is low-paid, low-skilled and hazardous.

The solutions come from three angles. Michael Heasman celebrates successes in corporate social responsibility and concludes CSR is here to stay. Helen Crawley champions the power of the ‘public plate’, explaining how tough, detailed nutritional standards for public caterers have won improvements in the past, and could achieve much more. Clare Devereux describes how communities have taken matters into their own hands, and catalogues a host of inspiring grassroots catering projects across the UK.

This edition's restaurant review is by Julia Hailes, author of the New Green Consumer Guide, who is shocked by the waste she finds at Yo Sushi.

Other contributors include: champion dinner lady Jeanette Orrey; Oxford Gastronomica’s Don Sloan; Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini; green chef Arthur Potts Dawson; Paul Roberts, author of The End of Food; Duke of Cambridge owner Geetie Singh; and 3663’s Martin Forsyth.

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Contents

Catering for ethics? | Tom MacMillan

Challenges
Ethical consumerism | Dr Emma Roe | Marc Higgin
How healthy is eating out | Dr Alan Maryon-Davis
Fast food in the developing world | Neville Rigby
Work and employment | Tony Royle
Business ethics | Donald Sloan

The big question
How good was your lunch? | Jeanette Orrey | Peter Jackson | Carlo Petrini | Jeanette Longfield | Geetie Singh | Anita Goyal | Martin Forsyth | Corinna Hawkes | Paul Roberts | Arthur Potts Dawson

Solutions
Corporate responsibility | Michael Heasman
Public procurement | Helen Crawley
Community catering | Clare Devereux

Comment
School dinners | George Lindars-Hammond
Food, faith and home | Mike Rayner

Regular features
From the editor
Book review
Restaurant review | Julia Hailes