Magazine: Their daily bread

The National Public Health and Medical Officer Service (ÁNTSZ)’s dietary health recommendations, which were published last year, have had a detrimental effect on a few public catering companies. It is also true though that the majority of experts find the much-debated recommendations good and progressive, at the same time being aware of the mistakes they contain too.

Despite their rationality, public procurement regulations often obstruct the usage of practical solutions that are also good from a dietary health perspective. Small public catering service providers have the ability to adapt to the new situation quicker and many of them have already started using local ingredients. On the other hand, there are many regions where farmers do not produce enough to provide public catering kitchens with ingredients. Local labour force has to compete with recently established ‘food factories’, which cook food from foreign ingredients that tastes relatively good but is of canned food quality.