University Hospital Lewisham serves 1,800 meals a day to patients and visitors. Interserve are the facility management company that provides catering at the hospital.
Over the last two years, with the help of a dietitian and the team at Food for Life Served Here, Interserve has ‘overhauled’ their menus.
According to Nuno Matias, catering manager at Interserve, patients and visitors can now expect better quality meat, responsibly sourced fish and locally sourced ingredients.
He added: “It was an amazing feeling getting the call to say we’d achieved our Food for Life Served Here award. It’s so much easier to create healthy menus now that we know what the standards are. The training from Food for Life Served Here helped us to make sure that the food we’re serving is fresh, tasty and honest.”
University Hospital Lewisham patients and visitors can be 'reassured' that the food on the menu in Food for Life Here accredited hospitals are a minimum of 75% freshly prepared. Over 1.8 million Food for Life Here meals are served across the UK every day.
To achieve a bronze accreditation other criteria must be met including meals containing no undesirables food additives, meat is supplied from farms must meet UK welfare standards, the menus are seasonal, no endangered fish are served and the eggs are from cage-free hens.
Ian Nutt, associate director at Food for Life, said: “Food for Life Served Here caterers are leading the way in improving food culture. Achieving a Food for Life Served Here Award is a fantastic accomplishment and a true reflection of a caterers’ commitment to serving meals that are nutritious as well as tasty.”