It quotes the letter as saying: “Instructions will be given to major producers of patient meals to put in place contingency arrangements, to account for short supply of certain ingredients.”
It is part of the government’s planning to cope with the UK leaving the EU without an agreed deal.
Chair of the public sector catering group PS100, Andy Jones, told The Guardian he was ‘very, very concerned’ that supplies would be affected.
He said trusts could make plans to cope in the short term, but worried that problems could easily escalate in the longer term, with up to 40% of ingredients imported from the EU, much of it delivered under a ‘just in time’ system.
“One thing we will see, I think, is choice disappearing. People will just be given what we can get our hands on,” he told The Guardian.
The Guardian’s sister paper, The Observer reported separately on Sunday (November 11th) that similar planning is under way to help school, prison and care home caterers prepare.