School Food Standards
Litmus Edge helps schools meet School Food Standards by automating menu management, tracking nutrition and supporting sustainability.
Litmus Edge Helps Schools to Meet school Food Standards
The School Food Standards are designed to ensure that every child has access to healthy, nutritious meals that support their wellbeing, concentration, and learning throughout the school day.
They provide a mandatory framework for schools — encouraging balanced, varied diets while reducing foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and promoting responsible, sustainable sourcing.
While most schools understand what the Standards require, ensuring full compliance can be a time-consuming process.
Making what's mandatory a pleasure, not chore
The School Food Standards are designed to ensure that every child has access to healthy, nutritious meals that support their wellbeing, concentration, and learning throughout the school day.
They provide a mandatory framework for schools — encouraging balanced, varied diets while reducing foods high in fat, sugar and salt, and promoting responsible, sustainable sourcing.
While most schools understand what the Standards require, ensuring full compliance can be a time-consuming process. From analysing nutritional content and checking allergens to managing suppliers and portion sizes, maintaining consistency across every menu can place real pressure on catering teams.
That’s where Litmus Edge, our specialist Catering Management System, can make a real difference.
Litmus Edge simplifies compliance by digitising menu management, automating nutritional checks, and integrating sustainability tracking — helping schools meet the School Food Standards with ease while freeing up valuable time to focus on what really matters: preparing great food.
How can Litmus Edge benefit my school or trust?
Contact us today to find out
Helping schools deliver good nutrition
The School Food Standards aim to:
- Encourage healthy eating and positive food habits.
- Ensure children receive the energy and nutrients they need to thrive.
- Promote variety through nutrient-rich ingredients.
- Limit foods high in saturated fat, sugar and salt.
- Embed sustainability through responsible sourcing in line with Government Buying Standards (GBS).
By aligning food quality, nutrition and sustainability, the Standards ensure schools can deliver food that supports both pupil health and environmental responsibility.
However, the process of verifying compliance across every recipe, supplier and menu cycle can be complex. Litmus Edge makes it simple.
How Litmus Edge supports compliance
Litmus Edge is purpose-built to help schools meet and maintain the School Food Standards without adding administrative burden. It automates the key areas of compliance, providing accurate, real-time information to support decision-making, reporting and continuous improvement.
Quality Food
Delivering healthy, appealing meals doesn’t need to be complicated. With over 2,000 preloaded recipes, each linked to verified supplier nutritional and allergen data, Litmus Edge helps schools plan menus that fully comply with the School Food Standards.
Key features include:
- Automated menu management aligned to School Food Standards.
- Supplier-linked allergen and nutritional information for every recipe.
- Compliant PPDS labelling for pre-packaged foods.
- Practical guidance on food frequency and menu balance.
Even small changes — such as switching to wholegrain pasta, rice or bread — can have a big impact on fibre and nutrient intake. With Litmus Edge, these improvements become simple to plan, manage and track.
Sustainability
Sourcing responsibly is a core principle of the School Food Standards and the Government Buying Standards (GBS).
Litmus Edge helps schools make informed, sustainable choices that align with these national guidelines and local priorities.
The system supports schools to:
- Identify suppliers that meet sustainability criteria.
- Choose seasonal and locally sourced produce.
- Increase plant-based options and incorporate more pulses and grains.
- Source Red Tractor-assured meat and MSC-certified seafood.
- Track sustainability metrics and progress through reporting tools.
Through Litmus Edge, schools can demonstrate clear sustainability leadership and build stronger relationships with responsible suppliers.
Waste Reduction
Reducing food waste is not just an environmental goal; it’s also an operational and financial priority. Litmus Edge helps schools achieve this by integrating waste management directly into day-to-day kitchen operations.
Key features include:
- Built-in waste tracking and reporting tools.
- Accurate portion control and menu forecasting.
- Streamlined stock management and ordering processes.
- Data insights to help schools refine production and reduce over-ordering.
By optimising purchasing and portioning, Litmus Edge reduces both food and financial waste — helping schools run more efficient, sustainable kitchens.
School Foods Standards Compliance with Ease
Using Litmus Edge to support School Food Standards compliance enables schools to:
- Deliver fully compliant menus aligned to the latest nutritional and sustainability requirements.
- Save time by automating allergen, nutritional and standards checks.
- Strengthen sustainability credentials through responsible sourcing and waste reduction.
- Improve meal quality and variety, increasing pupil satisfaction and uptake.
- Reduce catering costs through improved efficiency and smarter procurement.
Litmus Edge turns compliance from a challenge into an opportunity — supporting better food, better operations and better outcomes.
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Why choose Litmus Edge?
With over 30 years of experience in education catering and compliance consultancy, Litmus Partnership understands the unique pressures schools face.
Our expertise in procurement, performance and foodservice design informs every element of Litmus Edge, ensuring it delivers both operational practicality and strategic value.
We’ve helped hundreds of schools and trusts transform their catering management — saving time, reducing costs and improving compliance.
Litmus Edge brings that experience together in one intuitive platform that delivers measurable results.
Take the next step
If you want to simplify compliance and deliver nutritious, sustainable meals that meet the School Food Standards, Litmus Edge can help.
Get in touch to arrange a demonstration and see how Litmus Edge can support your school or trust in delivering better food, smarter operations and full standards compliance.
Contact Us
We love to connect with business leaders that want to make a change. Contact our friendly team to request a no obligation chat about your current challenges and goals.