From Jill Blair
Members of the East of Scotland Branch recently visited Breda in Holland as guests of food service equipment manufacturers Sortrans and ISECO UK.
Members were met by Jaroen Krielaart, a member of the family which owns Sortrans, and given a guided tour of the headquarters as well as a rundown on the company’s business plans for the future since its acquisition of ISECO UK. An accomplished artist, Jaroen also showed us some of his paintings which are on display at Sortrans HQ and in a local museum.
The following day we travelled to Zwolle to visit one of the hospital sites which receives delivered meals from a central production unit (CPU) called ‘La Gourmande’, which is a privately-funded facility owned by the Issala hospital group. This brand new kitchen, based on an industrial site, has been built according to very high environmental standards and is considered the most advanced in Holland. It opened in October 2007 and primarily assembles chilled food products. Some 1,550 meals leave the kitchen daily in refrigerated trolleys and are delivered to two hospitals, one rehab centre, a clinic and three retirement homes.
We toured the facility then split into two groups to visit separate hospital wards to see the regenerated food being served to the patients. The versatility of the system’s regeneration cycle and also the delivery times to the wards was explained to us. Dutch legislation towards HACCP appears to take a more pragmatic approach than in Scotland as it is only a legal requirement to take food temperatures twice a week!
We then enjoyed a full patient lunch served from a Serelis trolley.
The Branch Members would like to thank the following for their hospitality: Don Gordon and Nigel Senior, Directors of ISECO UK, Ben Rijnders of Sortrans who doubled as our driver during our stay in Holland; Nicolas Protin of ISECO Europe and Development Chef Jarvan Sliedregg who cooked a superb meal for us at Sortrans HQ on the Thursday night. Last but not least, our thanks to brothers Jaroen and Gerben Krielaart.
Programme of events 2008
| Date | Event/Venue |
| June | Team Building |
| August | Business Meeting, Dudson Crockery, Stoke-on-Trent |
| September | Dinner |
| October | Study Day |
| 21st November | Annual General Meeting, Edinburgh |
For confirmation of dates and more information about events, please contact Gary Adamson on 01592 202158, e-mail: gary.adamson@johnsondiversey.com
