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Copenhagen touts ‘organic food revolution’

An impressive 88 percent of all food served in the City of Copenhagen’s public institutions is organic, according to new figures released by the city.

Published: 24 May 2016 11:28 CEST
Copenhagen touts ‘organic food revolution’
No other city in Denmark comes anywhere close to that mark and it is believed that Copenhagen’s percentage of organic food is the highest in the world. 
 
Copenhagen officials set a goal in 2007 to serve 90 percent organic food in its daycare institutions, schools and elderly care centres. 
 
The school's nurseries, daycare institutions and schools have actually surpassed the target, serving 94 percent organic food, while food prepared in municipal kitchens for home care patients halts behind at 60 percent. 
 
Seen as a whole, 88 percent of all food served in Copenhagen's municipal-run institutions is organic, just two percentage points shy of the city's lofty ambitions.
 
When officials set the target, just 51 percent of food was organic and most public kitchens relied heavily on pre-cooked and pre-packaged meals. 
 
 
The organic transition was done with the same budget allocation as before, despite the more expensive organic goods. The city said this was done by cooking from scratch, buying goods in season, reducing food waste and using less meat.
 
“The transition to organic living is fully in the line with the green profile that we have in Copenhagen. The City of Copenhagen is a large player in the edibles area, and by setting the standard on organics, we protect the environment and help to ensure clean drinking water free of pesticides,” Mayor Frank Jensen said. 
 
“But equally important, the high level of ambition has specifically led to a higher quality of life for every citizen, who is dependent every day on food delivery from the City. For me it is absolutely basic core welfare that we are able to serve healthy and tasty food in the City’s schools, nursing homes, shelters, and day-care centres,” he added. 
 
Copenhagen’s roughly 900 municipal kitchens purchase around 11 tonnes of foodstuff each year. The city provides meals in care homes, nurseries, kindergartens and the large ‘EAT’ kitchen, which provides the city’s public school students more than 6,000 portions of freshly-prepared food every day. 

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READER QUESTIONS

Why can’t you get fresh fish in supermarkets in Denmark?

Given that nowhere in Denmark is more than 52km from the sea, fresh fish can be surprisingly hard to get hold of. When one of The Local's readers asked why, we tried to find the answer.

Published: 28 August 2024 15:52 CEST
Why can't you get fresh fish in supermarkets in Denmark?

“A decent variety of fish in the supermarket is something we really miss,” the reader wrote in a comment to a recent article. “I regularly return to my old stamping ground on the Franco-Swiss border, hundreds of kilometres from the sea, and the fresh fish in the local Carrefour supermarket is invariably excellent. Why can’t they manage it in Odense, 20 minutes from the coast?” 

It’s hard not to sympathise. Denmark, after all, is practically all coast, with the country consisting of a peninsula and 1,419 islands. 

The Local started by asking the Danish Chamber of Commerce, which represents most of Denmark’s leading supermarket chains. 

“I have spoken with my colleague on the matter,” replied Lars Ohlsen, the chamber’s press chief. “We don’t have any research, but our best bet is that the business case does not work. That if the supermarkets had it on the shelves, they would not make a profit on them.” 

We then approached Royal Fish, one of the leading buyers and sellers of Danish fish, whose chief executive, Donald Kristensen, put the near non-existence of fresh fish counters in supermarkets down to Danish penny scrimping. 

“The main reason is that Danish people will not pay for fresh food,” he said. “In Denmark we don’t have a tradition of spending a lot of money on food. If you compare to other countries in Europe, it’s one of the countries where people spend the least.”

To get fresh fish in Denmark you usually have to go to a fishmonger or fishmarket, like this one at Copenhagen’s Torvehallerne. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

It’s not due to a shortage of fish, he stressed. Despite the decline of fish stocks in waters around Denmark and the crisis in the Danish fishing industry, there remains a lot to be caught in Danish waters. 

“We have plenty of fish but we export all of it to the rest of Europe,” he said. “We only work with fresh fish and 99 percent of it is exported to Germany, France, Spain, Italy, in fact all of Europe. 

“Danes also eat fish, but that is mainly at restaurants, ” he continued. “When we buy fish for private purposes, it’s mostly smoked fish, shrimps in brine, or canned mackerel.”

The closest Danish supermarkets come to fresh fish, outside flagship supermarkets in the big cities that is, is fish sold in gas-filled ‘MAP packs’, which can keep for longer on the shelves, he explained.

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