Official UK procurement notice
Market Data on Food and Drink Products - Engagement
Authority: Department of Health & Social Care (Central government)
What is being bought
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The purpose of this market engagement exercise is to secure details for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on the availability and cost of commercially available market data on food and drink products sold by retailers, manufacturers and the out of home sector. The exercise also asks for costs of data analysis.
This information is being sought to inform an expected future tender exercise for the future supply of this data to the Department.
Responses should cover which parts of the requirements you can provide. You do not need to be able to cover every part in order to provide a response. For example, your response would be valid and acceptable if you are only able to provide nutrition data for the out of home sector.
- Sectors and outlets
The Department is looking for a contractor or contractors that can supply data on the sales and nutrient content of food and drink purchases made from:
shops – including main supermarkets, smaller food shops e.g. Spar, Premier Stores, non-traditional food retailers e.g. Primark, farmers and other indoor or outdoor markets, cash and carry, wholesalers etc as well as online purchasing. This should include both manufacturer branded and supermarket own-brand products.
eating out of home businesses – including principally high street chain restaurants, bakeries, sandwich shops, cafes, fast food outlets, pubs, takeaways etc. This should include both manufacturer branded or other ready made products bought in and food and drink products made on site. This should include purchases made online via apps, websites etc.
Brief details should be provided on the methodology and processes used to collect the data including the frequency of data collection and the likely age of the data that will be provided e.g. no older than 4 months old, 12 months, 3 years etc.
Businesses are asked to provide information on standard data that is collected routinely e.g. sales and nutrition data for all supermarkets; and on additional data that can be provided but would require specific collection e.g. nutrition information for the out of home sector. Where specific data collection is needed, please provide brief details of the process used.
Businesses should also provide details of the proportion of each market that is covered by its data e.g. 95% of the retail market, 92% of food manufacturers, 60% of the out of home market. If this differs between sales and nutrition data, please give these proportions separately. Please also provide details of which parts of the market you are not able to provide data on and why.
Please provide a timeframe for producing the required data and how long before delivery of the data confirmation would need to be given of the data purchase e.g. 6 months between confirmation and delivery of the dataset.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Products to be included
Retailers and manufacturers – all food and drink products sold in store, both pre-packed and loose including in store bakery items, fruit and vegetables, meat and fish from instore counters. The data should also capture sandwiches and other “on the go” food and drink products, commercial baby food and drink, all infant and follow on formula, alcoholic and low/no alcohol drinks and diet and weight loss food and drink products. It should not include dietary supplements.
Eating out of home businesses – all food and drink products listed on the menu including children’s menus and dishes.
Please provide
- any relevant information on the products for which you routinely collect data and any that you do not.
- details of your product category structure and how products are assigned to categories
- information on whether you are able to categorise products to different category structures e.g. according to the main categories in the Eatwell Guide
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Product data
Retailers and manufacturers
The data should be available for at least the last 3 years and should include the following as a basic dataset:
- Product name
- Product weight (e.g. 350g) or volume (500ml)
- Pack size (if appropriate e.g. 4 x 50g)
- Price
- Volume sales
- Value sales
- Nutrition information per 100g for nutrients given on pack, including vitamins and minerals where provided
o Energy (kcal/kJ)
o Fat (g)
Of which saturates (g)
o Carbohydrate (g)
Of which sugars (g)
o Fibre (g)
o Protein (g)
o Salt (g)
- Nutrition information per serving, where given, including the weight of the portion
- Whether the nutrition information is for the product as sold or as consumed. If the nutrition information is for the product as consumed, any information given within the nutrition panel on the dilution factor (e.g. 20ml squash, 200ml water) or cooking method (e.g. fried, baked) used should also be provided.
- Date the data was collected
- Basic relevant company information
- Any product categorisation used
Eating out of home businesses
The data should be available for at least the last 3 years and should include the following as a basic dataset:
- Product name
- Serving size as weight (e.g. 350g) or volume (500ml) where available
- Price
- Volume sales
- Value sales
- Nutrition information per serving and per 100g for nutrients for which data is available, which is likely to be
o Energy (kcal/kJ)
o Fat (g)
Of which saturates (g)
o Carbohydrate (g)
Of which sugars (g)
o Fibre (g)
o Protein (g)
o Salt (g)
- Date the data was collected
- Basic relevant company information
- Any product categorisation used
Please state if it is possible to provide the following information for retailers and manufacturers and/or eating out of home businesses:
- Ingredients given on product packaging or menus
- Any diet or nutrition claims included on product packaging or menus
- Overall Nutrient Profile Model score for each product for which nutrition information is provided, based on the 2018 model (published 2026), and the separate scores for free sugars and the fruit, vegetable and nut component
- Classification of products as (ultra) processed foods against the NOVA classification system
Please also provide brief details in the following areas if not already done so:
- Methodology used to collect and QA the nutrition and other related data, how data gaps are filled
- Feasibility of providing a fully comprehensive data dictionary for the datasets for both retailers and manufacturers, and the out of home sector. This should explain how recalculated columns are calculated – including details of which columns are used as well as providing column descriptions.
- Frequency of data collection
- Information on the reliability and weaknesses, and quality, of the nutrition and related data
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
CPV: Data analysis services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Department of Health & Social Care buys Data-processing services (CPV 7231), and who usually turns up
Department of Health & Social Care’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Data-processing services (CPV 7231) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means registered in Greater London (authority’s region).
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Greater London.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 29 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid20% / 10%
2–340% / 30%
4–620% / 30%
7+20% / 30%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate50% / 60%
Within ±2%50% / 30%
Above estimate0% / 10%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 7231Estimate not published
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 10 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid10%
2–330%
4–630%
7+30%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Below threshold
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 19 Jun 2026, 15:27 BST
- Last source update
- 19 Jun 2026, 15:27 BST
- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-058207- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06b96eFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
19 Jun 2026 → 1 Jan 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published125 days ago19 Jun 2026, 15:27 BST
- Market engagement97 days ago17 Jul 2026, 23:59 BST
- Additional data
Please provide information on whether it is possible to provide the following information and, if so, how that data is collected if not already provided:
Demographics – data on age, sex, geographical location, ethnicity, socio-economic status and household composition (e.g. young family, retired etc), whether a member of the household is using weight loss medication e.g. GLP1
Retailer data – for manufacturers branded products, this covers the proportion of sales of each product for each of the major retailers.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Analysis
The data will be used to support development and implementation of government policy based on a variety of analysis that will be carried out using the data. The contractor(s) may need to undertake some of this analysis - previous examples of the analysis that may be required are listed below with their related online publication:
Cost of living Changes in food and drink purchasing behaviour and the impact on diet and nutrition: 2021 to 2023 - GOV.UK
Drinks data Sugar reduction in drinks: 2015 to 2024 - GOV.UK
Please provide estimated timescales and costs for undertaking these different types of analysis.
There would also need to be complete confidentiality between the contractor and DHSC around any contracted analysis, until it was published by DHSC.
Any analysis conducted for DHSC cannot be shared with other clients, or internally within the contractors’ organisation, unless express permission is given by DHSC.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Data sharing with OGDs, academics etc
DHSC works with several other government departments and a number of academics in delivering its work. Please provide details of whether data purchased by DHSC can be shared with these parties. If some data can be shared while some cannot, or if some instances allow for data sharing but others do not, please provide clear details of what is permitted and what is not. If there are increased costs associated with sharing data with these parties, please provide details of these additional costs. It would also be useful to know if it’s possible to share data once it is of less commercial value e.g. 3 years old.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- First data commission
The first data commission to the successful contractor will be to provide a volume sales and nutrition dataset on the commercial baby food market. Where relevant, the nutrition data should be collected after 1 March 2027 and should be no more than 3 months old when supplied to DHSC, although as this is a small product category it is hoped that the data collection, where necessary, will take less time than this.
Please provide any information on this commission that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Contract
Following the completion of the market engagement exercise a full tender process will follow to identify a suitable supplier or suppliers.
The contract, once tendered for, a supplier identified and contracts signed, is expected to run for 3 years. Datasets and/or analysis will be commissioned at specific points during the lifetime of the contract, with likely delivery points being set out as part of the contracting process. The contract is expected to start towards the end of this calendar year.
A break clause will be in place after the delivery of each dataset or piece of analysis work that will allow the Department to decide to not commission further datasets, analysis or other work.
Please provide any information relevant to these points including any anticipated benefits or issues with working in this way ie issues with staff availability, retention or redeployment; does having a contract for this period of time deliver any financial discounts or value for money, does it ensure smoother data collection and preparation?
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Costs
Please provide the cost of the provision of each dataset:
- Nutrition and sales data for food and drink purchased from shops
- Nutrition and sales data for food purchased from out of home businesses
Please also provide costs for data that is not routinely collected or provided but would need to be in order to fulfil the Department’s requirements set out in this document.
Please ensure all costs are given both inclusive and exclusive of VAT, also showing the amount of VAT payable.
If there are any options for providing cost savings to the department, please provide details.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Payments
As is the case across central government departments, DHSC cannot make upfront payments to suppliers ie before any work has been completed. Payments are generally made once an agreed milestone or KPI has been met. For example, for previous data contracts one payment was made on delivery of an initial dataset or analytical output, with a second payment being made once a final dataset or output had been provided, after any changes or corrections had been completed.
An alternative way of making payments is to pay a proportion of the total cost on a monthly basis.
Please provide information on how your payment system usually works and whether the above way of operating causes any problems. Please also provide information on whether any particular payment method may provide added value or be beneficial to the Department.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
- Risks
Please provide information on any risks or issues that could stop or impact the collection, processing or provision of data or analysis; as well as the mitigations and actions that would be in place to prevent these from occurring as much as possible.
If any such issues have arisen in the last 3 years please provide information on what these were and how they were overcome.
Please provide any additional information that you think would be helpful at this stage.
Further information
Please provide any further information that you feel it is important to provide at this stage and that has not been included in this specification. It may be an area we have missed or something additional that you are able to provide or offer that you haven’t yet had the opportunity to provide details for.
All responses will be confidential and will be considered and reviewed when drafting the final tender documents, specification and contract.
Responses
Please send any responses to Georgina Smyth [email protected] by 5pm on Friday 17 July 2026. This email address should also be used for any questions you may have about this market engagement exercise.
- Tender notice expected51 days ago1 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today23 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 70 days1 Jan 2027
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published19 Jun 2026, 15:27 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender