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Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI)

Health and nutrition

There can be few areas of public policy where the positive benefits to lives, health and wellbeing are potentially as dramatic as they could be in diet and nutrition”.

Cabinet Office Strategy Unit's report Food: an analysis of the issues - January 2008

Department of Health and Food Standards Agency

  • Department of Health advice on tackling obesity
    Provides guidance for healthcare professionals and others working on obesity; plus links to useful sources of advice
  • Food Standards Agency's guide "Healthy Vending Machines" (PDF 150 KB on FSA website)
    Provides schools with practical and commercially sound advice on where best to locate the machines, what products to stock and why it's important to involve both staff and students in the decision-making process about what to vend.
  • Food Standards Agency's Eatwell site
    Provides useful information on healthy diets, health issues, keeping food safe and food labels; plus advice on E numbers and intolerance to additives.
  • Support the “5 A DAY programme” (PDF 50 KB)
    How caterers can help encourage their customers to choose healthy options and increase their consumption of fruit and vegetables
  • NHS Sustainable food
    NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency’s website in support of the Government’s strategy to secure a sustainable, world class farming and food sector contributing to a better environment and healthy and prosperous communities through the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative.
  • Better Hospital Food programme
    This website provides best practice guidance, resources and background information on food delivery for all catering professionals, healthcare staff and patients in NHS healthcare facilities.

Nutritional guidance

  • FSA nutritional guidance for food served in major institutions and care homes
    Contains practical guidance to help caterers across the UK provide food that meets the nutritional needs of adults (for example in, workplace canteens, hospitals, prisons, local and central Government) and older people in residential care homes. The advice is designed to help caterers reduce saturated fat, salt and sugar intakes, and improve consumption of some vitamins and minerals and includes weekly example menus. It includes:
    • Guidance on food served to adults in major institutions
    • Guidance on food served to older people in residential care
    • Nutrient and food based guidance for UK institutions
    • Nutritional Guidelines for Food Served in Public Institutions
    • Link to Department of Health’s “Improving Nutritional Care Action Plan”
  • Sustainable food in care catering - briefing paper (PDF 250 KB on NACC website)
    The paper, published in 2006, gives details of a pilot project planned by the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) and Sustain for the procurement of sustainable food for residential care homes for older people. It outlines the key obstacles and opportunities and points to sources of more information and useful case studies.
  • NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency's Nutrition Database
    This contains nutritional information for the food products that PASA procures. Currently available to NHS staff and suppliers.

 

Ministry of Defence nutrition guides

This is a useful booklet containing information about the importance of good nutrition in improving the body’s ability to fight infection, illness, negative moods and lack of motivation and about other nutrient related medical conditions and how to tackle them.

Food safety

  • Safer Food Better Business (SFBB)
    Food safety management pack developed by the Food Standards Agency to help small catering businesses comply with new regulations introduced in January 2006, promote food safely, train staff, protect their reputation and improve their operations, e.g. by wasting less food.
 
Further information

Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat PDF documents.

Page last modified: 26 August 2008
Page published: 2 November 2004

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs