Trust adopts sustainable measures to reduce food wastage and improve healthy consumption, reducing patient meal service costs by over £175k

Challenges

 As a large acute trust serving 40,000 meals a week, we wanted to promote a culture of sustainability through health and nutrition, resource efficiency, service quality, monitor utility consumption and food waste and implement actions to reduce, communicate quantifiable objectives/targets, and empower staff to take forward improvements. By being involved in and achieving the Soil Association/Carbon Trust Green Kitchen Standard pilot and the Soil Association Food for Life Served Here Silver Standard (FFLSH), we aimed to provide a focus and structure to energy management, recycling and food waste prevention while also improving inpatient food experience at good cost.

Actions

 The FFLSH Silver Standard is assessed on a points system with organisations rewarded for every percentage point of their ingredient spend on ethical and environmentally friendly food, locally sourced ingredients and steps to offer healthier menus. A multidisciplinary approach with stakeholders drawn from within and external to the organisation to source environmentally friendly and ethical food by changing ways of work with existing suppliers, building relationships with local suppliers, to make positive steps towards championing healthy eating across a large acute trust. 

•Inpatient food and customer food experience was improved through a review of menu choices. A trust-wide inpatient survey was developed with input from governors/patient representatives to ensure patients receive a suitable choice of menu, offered the portion size they need which was handed out by ward staff. Menu choices are regularly reviewed by a quarterly food group consisting of ward-based staff, caterers, dietitians, patients and governors, with staff from specific areas highlighting the appropriateness of the types of food given following a series of listening into action events. Two seasonal menus were introduced as a result of patient feedback and food tasting results for popular menu choices.

•Staff engagement and empowerment to make a difference. We now have trained healthy eating champions to promote a healthy, balanced lifestyle by eating well, contributing to the NHS healthy workforce strategy and our sustainability champions take ownership for driving a culture to rethink, reduce, reuse and recycle in our trust food production facility, addressing non-compliance with our strategy.

•Around 50 staff upskilled in fresh food preparation and how to give a good customer experience whilst limiting wastage in dining rooms.

•The demands of the FFLSH Silver Standard meant we had to revisit existing ways of working with suppliers and staff to ensure ethical, sustainable and environmental food was purchased, e.g. only UK farm assured meats and fish only from the Marine Conservation Society ‘fish to eat’ were purchased, ceasing sale of sugar sweetened beverages, promoting non meat dishes, developing recipes with reduced meat content, no salt in cooking. Reduction and/or reuse of delivery packaging was also encouraged, 5% organic spend achieved, free range eggs and no artificial trans fats, undesirable additives or genetically modified foods used in freshly prepared food.

•A food waste minimisation plan was produced to purchase only what we need and regular stakeholder meetings held to discuss waste statistics, plan change actions. Working with estates, we monitored equipment efficiencies, utilities usage and target for improvement. Replacement programmes which ensure energy efficiencies, carbon reductions, lifecycle and maintenance costs are considered too.

Results

•Largest acute NHS organisation in the country to achieve (FFLSH) award for both inpatient areas and staff dining areas

•Improving patient satisfaction scores [percentage value] while also reducing costs [percentage value] without compromising on quality of food, which is demonstrated by an increased in the number of written compliments (5 in 2017 compared to 2 in 2016 and 75 compliments regarding patient meal service audits in 2017 compared to 50 in 2016)

•Nearly 20 staff trained to make a difference by promoting healthy eating and sustainability agenda

•Working with ward staff we are improving standards of meal service by adapting meal quantities/orders and reducing waste. Patient meal service costs reduced by £176,260 in the last financial year

Spread

 Positive messages internally are shared through news bulletins, catering intranet, leafleting, promotions, and presentations by champions and stakeholder meetings. Engagement with estates/hotel services colleagues and ward based teams promotes a more sustainable culture and assists in our reduction schemes, engages discussions on targets etc. Sharing good practice with external organisations examples include a presentation to three Scottish Health Boards regarding our journey. We promote our work through the local Hospital Caterers Association network and utilise the trust’s social media feeds, local press etc.