# Addressing Sustainability within Public Procurement of Food: A Systematic Literature Review
## 3 Results
### Connecting Sustainability to Focus Words
#### 3.3.2 Framing Social Sustainability  
As illustrated in Figure 10, health was often associated with social sustainability through nutritious food, resulting in improved well-being, see, e.g., [17; 55]. Multiple authors highlight the importance of recognizing the contribution that nutritious and fresh foods have for good health and the prevention of food-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, malnutrition, and obesity, see e.g., [35; 79; 80].  
Figure 10: Focus words used in the context of social sustainability. (The star next to some of the words refers to a cut of where different variations of that word are possible, e.g., Ethic* can include ethical, ethically etc.).  
Education was identified in about half of the reviewed articles to relate to social sustainability. This was primarily related to programs and outcomes leading to the education of consumers (often school children), kitchen staff, as well as the procurement staff. Feeding school children was explored in several articles as an opportunity to impact eating habits towards nutritious, healthy, and sometimes local or organic food; e.g., the Brazilian School Feeding Program (PNAE) [81]. A handful of the articles discussed the opportunity that exists through schools and education to benefit local communities, see e.g., [29; 71; 77; 80; 82; 29; 42; 70; 83].  
Local food procurement was strongly linked to promoting social sustainability in the reviewed articles. Procuring local food was often associated with providing healthy and nutritious food, see e.g., [40; 72; 84]. Local food was also regarded as an assurance of quality and transparency, leading to consumers' trust and food security, see, e.g., [39; 58; 67; 82; 85; 86]. Some of the reviewed articles mention that food can be an expression of culture and identity connected to geographical areas [19; 55; 76; 87]. Therefore, sourcing local foods was suggested to contribute to the culture, education, and history, see e.g., [29; 72].  
Quality aspects of social sustainability were associated with safe food, which was primarily suggested to be fulfilled by transparency in the supply chain; once again also related to procuring local food as mentioned above, see e.g., [39; 58; 67; 82; 85; 86]. Several studies also suggested that the involvement of parents of school children in the public procurement of food could increase the quality of the food being served through dialogue, see e.g., [48; 61; 88]. As such, several studies suggest that there is potential with demands on quality to create new food narratives and connect farmers to consumers, see e.g., [46; 58; 61], creating more transparency and understanding of food systems.  
Ethical concerns were also commonly highlighted in the reviewed literature. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [89] suggest that criteria should be included in public procurement of food to ensure ethical aspects are taken into account, such as animal welfare, food safety, and fairly traded food products. Ethical issues relating to animal welfare were mentioned in several articles [18; 76]. Adhering to fair trade labels was also suggested to promote ethical consumption and socially sustainable practices [56; 90]. Fair Trade labels were mainly recognized as defending social issues of workers' rights, but it was also suggested to act as a guarantee for fair pricing and contribute to reduced poverty, see e.g., [55; 76; 91].  
Other commonly identified words included safe and organic to promote social sustainability. Safe working conditions were discussed in several articles, see e.g., [61; 90; 92] and for staff in the kitchen and the local farmers [38; 80]. Organic products were also suggested to contribute to social sustainability. This was motivated by their proposed contribution to the well-being of people through offering healthy, safe, and ethical choices.