Food glorious Food Made Good

Our founder Melissa Fretwell had a virtual coffee and a sublime pistachio bun at The Federal Café in Valencia with Isabel Martin, Head of Delivery at The Sustainable Restaurant Association (The SRA). A word of warning this post may make you peckish. Read on with a snack to hand.

For those unfamiliar with the work of The SRA, it was founded in 2008 by Simon Heppner, Giles Gibbons, Mark Sainsbury and Henry Dimbleby, with a vision of creating a clear intersection between the sustainable food movement and the hospitality industry. With a group of 50 founding restaurants, The SRA set out to create a robust framework for what made a restaurant ‘good’ and promote best practice across the industry and inspire healthy competition to drive progressive action. This Framework would become Food Made Good, the world’s leading sustainability certification for the hospitality sector, now used by foodservice businesses of all shapes and sizes across the globe.

Melissa and Isabel covered a lot of ground from how to frame sustainability to some incredible solutions that we all need to know about if we want to enjoy beautiful food.

“Aside from the obvious love of great food, my role inspires positive change. I have been at The SRA for ten years and have seen seismic shifts over this time. We now work with businesses in over 40 countries and the drive for sustainability is no longer solely led by the developed world but is often correlated with areas possessing strong food cultures. Last year we added eight new countries to our map: Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and Tanzania.

It’s also hugely satisfying to work with universities and their student cohorts. They are at a life stage where they are keen to learn, open to new ideas and are optimistic. They have a vitality to make change, be that by stopping single plastic use or by attending our guest lectures to learn how to lay sustainable practices in the early stages of their hospitality careers.

Our work brings us in contact with fascinating case studies like Farmers Marrakech, Morocco. This farm-to-table restaurant in the city’s Gueliz neighbourhood has its own 10-hectare permaculture farm, Sanctuary Slimane, just a 30-minute drive from the restaurant. Here, soil health is a priority, with over 50 raised beds planted among shady trees.

The farm functions as the main supplier for the restaurant, growing fresh fruits and vegetables, poultry, eggs, honey, olive oil and fresh herbs to organic standards. The menu always includes a good selection of plant-rich dishes which are packed with flavour. Mint, basil and lemon are used in the kitchen to create their own ice creams, jams and sauces.

Natural biodiversity and diversity on the plate are core to their offer. The farm often grows multiple types of the same produce for example, 15 different types of lemon, including less-common varieties. Organic waste from the restaurant is sent back to the farm every day to be used for composting and as food for the chickens, ducks, goats and sheep living on the farm. A circular system in motion.

They work closely with other suppliers to ensure that all produce is traceable to the farm of origin with under 10% of their ingredients being imported. No wonder the restaurant won the Sustainable Restaurant Award at MENA’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026.” As official Sustainability Audit partner for The World’s 50 Best brand, The SRA’s team of consultants evaluates the sustainability awards across the entire annual portfolio.

“Promoting sustainability during cost-of-living crises is sometimes tough to land. We present it with sensitivity, understanding the pressure on the margins. We recommend that it should not be seen as an ‘extra budget, nice to have’, but rather as fundamental to a business's resilience, especially within supply chains and operations. Framing the sustainability argument with an economic case first, showing cost savings over time, really gains attention. Making the sustainable option the most convenient and friction free is key to overcoming the barriers.

Integrate sustainability into people’s job roles, as part of their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be very helpful in encouraging change: for example, chefs having targets related to vegetable and pulse use, and procurement staff having targets for supply chain traceability. What you feed your staff must be aligned, too. This is much easier to build from the ground up but we know that retro-fitting can also be brilliant. There’s just another step, a potential resistance to change to overcome, then it becomes the optimum way to work.”

“Hospitality and tourism is huge in Spain and businesses are gradually adopting our standards. It's super encouraging to see. The likes of Honest Greens, a well-known Quick Service Restaurant chain (the one in Valencia gets a double thumbs up from Melissa) and the Starfish Atlantic Restaurant at the Royal Hideaway Resort in Tenerife, have recently completed the Food Made Good Standard, scoring well. They have both been awarded two stars, which we consider impressive for a first attempt and a loose indicator of existing market knowledge and appetite for sustainability.

Àngel León, known in Spain as ‘El chef del mar’ (the chef of the sea) from Aponiente in Cádiz, won the Sustainable Restaurant Award at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2022, and is doing incredible things with seafood and new discoveries from his marine garden. Cultivating and cooking with plankton, zostera (rice of the sea), creating marine charcuterie with discarded fish are a number of impressive creations.”

Foodies will be impressed by the restaurant royalty who are part of the movement. “Raymond Blanc OBE, who was famously self-taught hailing from the Franche-Comté region of France before venturing to the UK, has been with us since 2010. Prue Leith, widely known for her Bake Off tenure and of course her cookery schools. And Àngel León has also been an ambassador since around 2021. They are invaluable to help spread the word about what we’re trying to do on the global restaurant stage”.

“There can be high fees, administrative burden and stringent requirements for the likes of a B Corp certification which makes it unattainable, especially for smaller businesses. We are a broad church, designed to be accessible and evaluate each business on a case by case basis. While we know that plant based restaurants keep the carbon footprint low, we have awarded a high-end steak restaurant like Hawksmoor with three stars because of their comprehensive efforts across many areas of their operations.”

“A way all of us restaurant goers can contribute is by simply taking an interest in menu sourcing and asking important questions when dining out. According to YouGov, six in ten of UK consumers say they are eating out at least once a month so there’s plenty of opportunity. Enquiring about provenance, seasonality and the back story of the dishes signals expectations to the business. It also adds to the enjoyment of the food and provides some excellent small talk if you’re ever stuck for conversation!”

For those hungry to find out more, The SRA’s inaugural global insights report will be released in mid-March. Visit www.thesra.org to learn more, follow them on Instagram and LinkedIn for more updates, or sign up to their newsletter here for plenty of stories, insights, news and advice from across their global network.

If you’re looking to get your sustainable story noticed, drop Melissa a line: Melissa.fretwell@whitecamino.com.