AI-Profood

AI-Driven Food Procurement: shifting paradigms for sustainable and inclusive school canteens

Introduction

  • AI-ProFood develops a digital platform combining artificial intelligence and blockchain to bring data, transparency and decision-support tools to school food procurement and meal services. It helps policymakers, contracting authorities and catering professionals make more informed and sustainable choices across the full cycle, from planning to performance evaluation – not to replace human judgment, but to make sustainable choices easier.

  • Transforming how public institutions buy food is one of the most direct levers to shift food systems. Yet procurement officers still lack integrated practical tools to align supply and demand, reduce environmental impacts and embed sustainability into tenders.

  • Where: The project pilots its tools primarily in Copenhagen (Denmark), with additional implementation in Portugal and Italy. In a third phase, outcomes will be disseminated to up to ten replication cities across Europe

Sustainable public food procurement; Artificial Intelligence; Blockchain; School canteens; Digital innovation

2026-2029

TRL: 6

Background

School canteens represent a strategic access point to drive food system change at scale, influencing production, distribution, consumption, waste management, food literacy and community engagement.

However, public authorities face many structural barriers: cost constraints, procurement administrative complexity, lack of practical tools for monitoring and collecting data, and poor coordination among different stakeholders. The result is a system plagued by inefficiencies, including excessive food waste, low nutritional quality and little transparency along the supply chain. Meanwhile, childhood obesity is projected to rise by 60% by 2035, and the EU generates 59 million tonnes of food waste annually. The absence of practical, accessible, and legally sound digital tools continues to block the transition to more sustainable and equitable public food systems.

What we do

  • Developing an AI-powered platform to forecast demand, evaluate menus and suppliers on sustainability criteria, and support smarter procurement decisions.

  • Building a blockchain-based traceability system to verify ingredient origins, certifications and contract performance.

  • Mapping local food suppliers through a georeferenced database to connect municipalities with SMEs and develop regional short supply chains.

  • Designing sustainable, seasonal menus and food service workflows, from procurement templates to kitchen operations and waste management, validated in real school settings.

  • Developing legal instruments to support procurement officers and SMEs in adopting sustainable and AI-powered procurement practices in compliance with applicable EU legislation.

  • Consolidating outcomes into a Replication Toolkit and a Policy Brief, and supporting uptake across European municipalities through targeted communication and stakeholder engagement.

Expected impact on food system transformation

AI-ProFood builds on the conviction that responsible digital innovation, co-designed with public authorities and local stakeholders, can contribute to overcome some of the key barriers to sustainable public food procurement.

The project acts on five main dimensions: shifting menus towards more plant-based, seasonal and healthy diets improving efficiency of the food service chain, from sourcing local and regional producers to waste and

logistics; enhancing transparency through blockchain and participatory tools; and analysing the legal and policy conditions for embedding digital innovation into food procurement, navigating a rapidly changing framework at the intersection of EU public procurement, AI and data governance, and food law.

Expected outcomes include improved food quality and reduced waste in school canteens, and a replicable, open-source and adaptable digital infrastructure to support institutional food procurement decisions across European municipalities.

Implementation and plans to reach target groups

AI-ProFood brings together six partners across Italy, Portugal and Denmark, combining expertise in law and public procurement, digital and spatial technologies, human geography, nutrition, food systems and environmental sciences and public policy.

The project is piloted in Copenhagen, then validated in two associated cities in Portugal and Italy joining in year two and up to ten replication cities in year three, building on existing European networks such as School Food 4 Change (SF4C) and FOOD 2030.

Target groups include public procurement officers, school canteen managers, policymakers at municipal and EU level, and SMEs and local food producers. They will be reached through onboarding workshops with associated cities, thematic workshops in the replication phase, a multilingual project website, newsletters and a final public conference. 

Partners of the project

  • Prof. Roberto Caranta – University of Turin, Department of Law – Italy/

    Mail: roberto.caranta@unito.it

    • Marche Polytechnic University – Italy

    • Food4Sustainability CoLAB, Portugal

    • EUC Inovação Portugal, Unipessoal, Lda – Portugal

    • Municipality of Copenhagen – Denmark

    • University of Copenhagen – Denmark

    • Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Ministero dell'agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste – MASAF, Italy

    • Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT)

    • Innovation Fund Denmark (Innovationsfonden – IFD)