Timeline at PSC Expo celebrates 125 years of public sector catering

The timeline was displayed at the event where attendees could view the key dates associated with public sector food from a variety of sectors including schools, hospitals, care homes, meals on wheels, universities, prisons and the military. The timeline also featured several food milestones from the past century.

The timeline featured:

• 1906: The Education (Provision of Meals) Act allowed local authorities to provide free school meals for undernourished children — a major step in formalising school catering.
• 1914-18: During the First World War the British Army sent approximately 3.24m tons of food to troops in France and Belgium.
• 1943: The first recorded delivery of a Meals on Wheels service in Welwyn Garden City by the Women’s Volunteer Service (WVS). During the Blitz the WVS started delivering meals to those who were displaced or unable to cook.
• 1948: National Health Service created to provide free healthcare to all UK citizens based on need rather than ability to pay. The Hospital Caterers Association, an industry body in the UK for people and organisations involved in NHS healthcare catering management, was also established in 1948.
• 1953:TUCO (The University Caterers Organisation) was established. This organisation supports in-house caterers in the education sector and provides a platform for members to share and celebrate achievements.
• 1977: ‘Orange Book’ is published. NHS catering across the UK has standardised recipes for the first time.
• 1990: The Local Authority Caterers Association (now LACA) was established. It is the leading professional body representing catering managers in local authorities, private contractors and individual schools who are providers of school meals services within England, Wales and Scotland.
• 1996: Head of prison catering Tony Frith labels ‘inadequate’ the £1.36 daily feeding allowance for breakfast, two hot meals, a supper snack and drinks.
• 2005: Jamie Oliver’s four-part television series on school meals airs and exposes processed and unhealthy school meals, including banning the infamous ‘turkey twizzler’. Following the programme over 270,000 people signed a petition calling for better nutritional standards.
• 2012: Cost Sector Catering (now Public Sector Catering) launches the PS100 group (now Public Sector Catering Alliance) to promote the ‘health and nutrition’ agenda of public sector caterers.
• 2019: UK adoption of IDDSI framework for dysphagia diets. Standardised texture-modified diets for people with swallowing difficulties, significantly changing how care caterers prepare and serve meals.
• 2020: Independent NHS Food Review, led by Prue Leith and Phil Shelley, set new standards for fresh, locally sourced meals. It had eight recommendations to improve the quality of meals for patients, staff, and visitors across nearly 1,000 NHS hospitals nationwide.