Following concerns raised by recent media reports on the subject of potentially poor quality imported chicken being unwittingly purchased by public sector caterers through UK based catering industry suppliers, the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) comments as follows:
Whilst hospital food purchasing is controlled by strict specification policies, suppliers do not always provide the source of a meat product. The only way to ensure that the source is identified is by reviewing the UK labelling regulations which, currently, contain no legal requirement for suppliers to specify the country of origin of meat products.
However, it should be borne in mind that NHS caterers only purchase food products from approved and reputable UK suppliers who operate to the highest standards of quality control. In the event of any potential risk to human health from a food product, hospital caterers would respond to advice issued by the Food Standards Agency and immediately withdraw it from menus.
In order to safeguard the integrity of the food chain, caterers and suppliers must continue to work together so that wherever possible the source of meat products is identified. However, the HCA would also support a tightening of labelling legislation so that all UK catering industry suppliers must specify the country of origin of all meat products.
In addition, a review of EU procurement regulations would be welcomed so that public sector caterers can source more local or British produce where appropriate. Under current EU procurement regulations, public sector caterers are not able to specify ‘British’ in purchasing specifications despite the fact that the Government has recently set targets for them to increase their use of local as well as organic produce.