The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) is to the first university in the UK to declare itself a Provenance Champion by publishing and certifying the provenance of its entire food supply chain through Happerley’s verification system.

The university caters for 1,200 students and 200 staff every day

Teresa North, commercial services director, said: “At the RAU we practice what we teach and aim to integrate sustainability across the whole organisation. Catering is an important part of this and we have introduced a number of measures to support this. Our students are the farmers, agricultural scientists and food producers of the future and we positively reinforce the great contribution integrity and authenticity has in the outstanding food we produce here in the UK.”

Matthew Rymer, founder of Happerley, is a farmer himself and said: “Getting the RAU behind us means a great deal to us as an organisation as everyone in farming recognises its great achievements in recognising the need to connect consumer and farmer if, as an industry we are to reward provenance. By including provenance as a part of students’ daily life it is blazing a trail of traceability for all and that is only good news for UK food producers and consumers alike.”