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17 September 2025
For over a decade, BaxterStorey has partnered with Food for Life Served Here (FFLSH) to transform the way sustainable and nutritious food is served across the UK. What began with a small number of pioneering locations, including the University of the Arts London (UAL), has expanded to many more locations such as the Scottish Government and Glasgow Caledonian University. Now, with the launch of a bold new five-year sustainability and nutrition strategy, BaxterStorey is setting its sights even higher: aiming to achieve Food for Life Served Here certification across all 1000 of its UK locations, as part of a trailblazing approach to serving healthier, more sustainable meals to the 1 million people they feed each day.
We sat down with Lizzie Foskett, (Head of Nutrition and ESG) to dive deeper into their team’s mission: to lead the way in healthy, sustainable catering that’s both delicious and transformative.
Q: What originally motivated BaxterStorey to pursue Food for Life Served Here certification?
Lizzie:
We’ve always championed a commitment to sustainable, nutritious food, but over the past three years, we’ve truly redefined what that means for our business. By putting food back at the heart of everything we do, we’re creating memorable experiences for our customers and clients, powered by skilled teams and shaped by our ‘Obsessed about Food’ culture - one rooted in creativity, craft, community, carbon, and cheer.
Our decade-long partnership with FFLSH has only strengthened this vision. We share a deep alignment in values, particularly around building a positive food culture grounded in education and transparency.
With the launch of our five-year sustainable nutrition mission, we’re equipping our chefs and teams to create dishes that are low in carbon, high in impact with real nutritional value. From working with suppliers who champion sustainability to putting more beans on the plate, we’re not just transforming menus, we’re shifting mindsets.
Partnering with FFLSH also provides a trusted framework to endorse our food culture, giving our customers confidence that they’re making the right sustainable food choices
Q: What does the FFLSH certification mean to your teams, clients, diners, and the sector as a whole?
Lizzie:
We’re proud to be shaping the future of foodservice by making meaningful change where it matters most, connecting people, planet, and purpose through the power of food.
Our continued partnership with the Soil Association is a prime example – we’re working towards certification across every single location, turning a certification into a badge of honour that champions traceability, seasonality, and integrity on every plate. For our clients, it’s helping them achieve their ESG targets, and for us its making sure every single location is fuelled by our sustainable nutrition ethos.
We’re giving our teams the confidence to lead from the front, to explain why we’re switching ingredients, rethinking menus, or shifting practices. It’s empowering chefs and front-of-house teams to have meaningful conversations around food choices with customers. In a world where food strategies and ESG goals are under the microscope, our ability to influence, educate and inspire with endorsement from partners like FFLSH, sets us apart.
Q: Can you share any specific initiatives or changes you’ve made as part of this journey?
Lizzie:
We are the first foodservice company to sign the ‘Beans is How’ pledge, an industry commitment to get more beans on the plate. With guidance from chef partner and BIH ambassador Bettina Campolucci Bordi, you could say we’ve grown an obsession with pulses across the business. Since the start of 2024, we have seen a 20% increase in beans and pulses being used in our dishes, across 700 of our locations. It has sparked powerful conversations with clients about health, sustainability, and what the future of food should look like.
We don’t like to sit still and are always looking to push boundaries, which is why we set up Project Knead. It started as a target to train 223 bakers to bring fresh bread back to our kitchens and has become a full-blown baking revolution, with nearly 1,000 bakers across 150 of our locations, with us recently launching in our France locations. Using regional food heroes to craft bakes like Waste Knot apple focaccia to chickpea-studded Wildfarmed creations, you can feel the passion and creativity from our chefs every time you walk into one of our kitchens.
Connecting these campaigns to FFLSH strengthens our movement as it highlights the impact we’re having on customers. They get a sense of the bigger picture when they see how we link to wider industry goals tackling ultra-processed foods, to embedding sustainability, for example.
Connecting these campaigns to Food for Life Served Here strengthens our movement as it highlights the impact we’re having on customers. They get a sense of the bigger picture when they see how we link to wider industry goals tackling ultra-processed foods, to embedding sustainability, for example.
Q: What are your personal highlights for 2025 and beyond?
Lizzie:
Our Sustainable Nutrition journey. It is an evolution of our ‘Obsessed about Food’ culture, which promotes our 5 C’s of craft, creativity, community, carbon and cheer. It’s at the heart of our business and how we show up for our clients, excite our customers, and build something that goes beyond the plate.
Through this movement, we’ve built strong partnerships with a new wave of allies, from global food influencers to nutrition pioneers. Our Obsessed Expo was an absolute highlight for us this year. It wasn’t just a showcase, but a statement with voices like Paul Newnham of the Chef’s Manifesto and Henry Dimbleby joining us, we have positioned ourselves not just as participants in sustainable food conversations, but as leaders of them.
But we're just getting started. As more people within the business understand the “why” behind what we do, the more impact we can make. FFLSH has been a huge support and plays an important role in helping us champion what climate-conscious catering truly looks like. The industry is seeing a paradigm shift in workplace catering and we’re excited to see how it shapes the future of hospitality.
In summary
BaxterStorey places nutritious, sustainable food, that is good for people and planet; at the heart of its operations through a company-wide Sustainable Nutrition Strategy. By investing in its catering teams and creating nutrition champions at each location, the business is empowering chefs to deliver vibrant, scratch-cooked meals through campaigns like Beans is How, Mood and Food, and Project Knead. Their commitment spans the entire food chain—from farm to fork—and reflects a deep care for climate, nature, and health. Proud of the food they serve, BaxterStorey teams are passionate, knowledgeable, and eager to engage customers. Through their partnership with Food for Life Served Here, they are embracing transparency and raising the bar for planet positive catering.
‘Together, BaxterStorey and Food for Life Served Here are not just serving meals, we're part of a wider good food movement. From food education to empowerment, and policy to plate, this partnership is proof that you can implement systemic change with the right tools, education and people behind you. It’s inspiring to be on this journey together.’