Steps towards an organic professional kitchen

The purpose of this paper is to describe the programme Steps Towards an Organic Professional Kitchen (Organic Steps) and how it has been adopted by both the public and private kitchens and a depicted case kitchen.

Theoretical framework consists of corporate social responsibility, sustainability of food, and sustainable procurement. Recent research on organic food is introduced. Organic Steps depicting five steps is illustrated, and the interrelated statistics are outlined. Consuming organic products in a case kitchen is described.

During the ten years, Organic Steps have been adopted well by the professional kitchens, and especially by the public kitchens. The customers of those kitchens consist mainly of children, young people, and the elderly. However, most kitchens are still employing Step 1. The case kitchen has reached Step 4 and consumes 25 organic products regularly.

Organic Steps encapsulates a practical model for both the public and the private kitchens in order to gradually move on towards an organic kitchen.

Publicly‐financed Organic Steps offers an example of a model, which successfully promotes the consumption of organic food. The long‐term results indicate the programme might be implemented also in other countries.