Public Food Procurement: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Public food procurement (PFP) is a policy instrument that has been used to “link” different objectives at once. We undertake a first systematic review of the scientific literature that deals with PFP in order to 1.) assess the progress of the scientific literature concerning PFP in different areas of the world, 2.) look for differences among them and try to identify the topics on which these studies focuses the most. Accordingly, our research questions deal with the definition of the main conceptual dimensions developed by the academic literature on PFP as well as with the geographical and temporal differences among the dimensions identified. The first evidence is the increase in the number of papers per year during the last decade. Furthermore, the literature on PFP is centred on the concepts of localisation and structured demand and its impacts on food chain actors, on citizen-consumers and on sustainability at large. As a main research result, we provide a conceptual framework of the PFP literature largely based on the concept of linkage that has been first proposed in law and regulation studies.