Patient Food Production & Supply - FOI Response Register

I am writing to make a formal request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, for information held by your Trust about the food production methods and catering procedures employed within the Trust's healthcare facilities.

For the purposes of clarity, I am referring to food that is prepared for, or otherwise supplied to patients by the Trust. This would likely, predominantly, be food supplied to in-patients; but it may well also include any restaurants supplied by your catering department (e.g., Aroma Coffee Houses, or cafés, where supplied).

Food Production Methods:

1.    RFI 1: Does the Trust produce food for patients in-house? If so, please clarify whether this is carried out on a central site (e.g., central production unit), or within each individual hospital. If there is a mixture of both, please clarify, where possible.

Our food is produced in house and on site

2.    RFI 2: If food is not produced in-house, please provide details on whether it is produced by a third-party facilities contractor (e.g., under a PFI agreement), or purchased from external sources, in frozen (or chilled) format.

N/A

Where possible, for RFI 1 and 2, please also clarify the arrangements for delivery-to-patient (e.g., is the food supplied to wards and then reheated on-site, or is some other reheating method used).

The food is cooked in bulk and held in a mobile heated trolley, it is delivered to ward level where a member of the catering team dishes up the requested meal, Nursing staff then delivers meal to patient.

3.    RFI 3: For in-patient meals, what is the average cost per meal, to the Trust?

23/24 Q1 was £2.54 for food provisions per patient per day, this does not include pay costs  

Recipe and Cooking Method Information:

4.    RFI 4:  In the event that the Trust produces food in-house, please supply a copy of the recipes, and cooking / preparation methods utilised by the catering department for standardised food items. I would imagine that this information would be readily available, owing to standardisation of menu items. In line with the Scottish Government's National Catering and Nutrition specification for Food and Fluid provision: https://www.nss.nhs.scot/media/1097/1479818118-food-in-hospitals-revised-march-2016.pdf

This would include information on ingredients, preparation steps, cooking temperatures, and any relevant nutritional considerations (e.g., it might be noted on menus that certain items are suitable for those on restricted diets, or that some menu items have specific allergens).

Please see attached spreadsheets

5.    RFI 5: If you do not produce food in-house, please confirm whether you hold standardised information as to what items are available (e.g., menus, and nutritional / allergen information), and supply a copy, where possible.

N/A

My preference would be to receive any correspondence electronically (as afforded under s 11(2)(a) of FoISA), ideally in a format that allows for contents to be interpreted using screen reading software.

If the Trust intends to supply redacted correspondence, I should be grateful if it would ensure that the text itself is "readable", e.g., by ensuring that content is not supplied merely in image format. Similarly, if there is data held in a spreadsheet format, please supply Excel or CSV files - a PDF may, for example, not allow for easy interpretation of the data.

I would hope that the bulk of this information is readily available, given the standardised nature of hospital catering services; however, if it is likely that a "costs" issue will come into play, I would be happy, in the first instance, to limit my request solely to your in-patient facilities (e.g. excluding any retail / staff catering offer).