From time spent with nutritional experts on the Hospital Food Standards Panel (HFSP) recently, it is clear that food can be an important part of the recovery process for hospital patients. Food sourced by hospital trusts and the caterers within them, has been put into the spotlight after the release of the HFSP report into to progress on standards in hospital food. This makes knowing how food is sourced by local hospital trusts even more important.
The NFU food chain team have issued a toolkit aimed at members who want to engage with their local NHS trusts.
There are some mandatory requirements for how food is procured , but these standards only cover about 30% of the sector. The market is clearly an important one to engage with. However it has a complex supply chain with thousands of caterers and wholesalers operating within it.
There are national caterers and wholesales that supply the public sector, and the NFU food chain team can work with these large national companies. However there is still a huge “tail” of small, regional and individual catering operators, who are difficult to reach.
In order to improve our influence on the ‘tail’, we have produced a Public Procurement Toolkit that aims to give users a simple guide to the public sector .
Lorna Hegenbarth, is the NFU food chain adviser said:
“The NFU have positive sourcing messages and supply chain advice that this section of the market can make use of. We want more public sector catering operators to buy more British food, in a way that provides value back to the farm gate, and procurers make use of a safe, traceable sustainable food supply.
The Public Procurement Tool Kit provides an opportunity for NFU County Advisers and members to engage with those operators in their regions, enabling catering providers in schools , hospitals, the MOD and prison service to benefit from more information about the British farming industry, how it works, the seasons, and how consumers want to understand the provenance story.”
We would like to hear your comments to help us get fuller picture of what works well in your area, Any questions? Please do contact the Food Chain Team on Rm9vZENoYWluRm9jdXNAbmZ1Lm9yZy51aw==