Healthy Choice Catering
Partnership
Introduction
Why Should I Do This
What is the Healthy Choice Catering Partnership?
What would I need to do?
About the scheme
Healthy Recipes
Resources & Publicity Materials
Consumer
Information
Introduction
This information has been produced as a tool for businesses to improve
knowledge about healthy catering practices and principles. It contains
lots of useful guidance, hints and recipes.
Many people are confused by information about healthy eating and
catering and feel that messages are always changing. The basics of
healthy eating however have remained the same for some time and are
fairly straightforward. Once you understand the basic principles it
becomes much easier to decide what makes a balanced diet and therefore
how you can offer healthier foods to your customers.
The Health Catering Handbook outlines the basic principles of health
catering, select this link to view
the Healthy Catering Handbook.
The ingredient buying guide gives examples of changes you could make
to your ingredients that could have an affect on the health balance of
the meals and food items you serve, select this link to view
the
Ingredient Buying Guide.
Further guidance can be found by selecting the following links:
Claims Guidance
Sector Specific Guidance
This guidance contains practical tips and hints depending on the type of food you serve:
Sandwich Makers
Indian Restaurants & Takeaways
Chinese Restaurants & Takeaways
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Why should I do this?
Almost 24 million adults in the UK today are overweight or obese and,
if trends continue, by 2010 one in four of us will be obese. Levels of
obesity have trebled in England over the past 20 years and they are
still rising. Figures for Scotland are similar and Wales has one of
the worst health records in Europe. But healthy catering is not just
about reducing obesity.
 Changing what people eat could also help avoid about a third of all
cancers. For example, diet is thought to increase the risk of bowel,
stomach and lung cancer, and high blood pressure, diabetes,
osteoporosis and tooth decay can all be diet related.
Many health risks can be dramatically reduced by choosing a healthier
lifestyle including plenty of physical activity and a healthy diet.
You might not be able to get people moving, but you are in a position
to give your customers the chance to choose healthier food and to do
it without compromising on taste.
Since many people are eating takeaway and restaurant food on a regular
basis, the meals you serve provide a significant proportion of many of
your customer’s food intake. More and more people are also looking for
healthier options - one national chain reported that its healthier
option range accounted for 40% of all sales.
Health and nutrition is a huge national issue at the moment – the
Government has been working with caterers, including national chains,
to improve nutritional standards and to introduce calorie information
on menus. Some of these businesses such as M&S cafes, Greggs, Burger
King and Subway have outlets here in the Borough.
You may wish to simply use the guidance to make some small
changes to your catering practices but Stockton Trading Standards have
also launched a healthy catering partnership for those businesses who
wish to obtain certification that they meet healthy catering
practices.
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What is the Healthy Choice Catering Partnership?
A scheme to encourage local caterers to reduce the level of fats,
saturated fats, salt and sugars in the food they serve and to make it
easier for their customers to eat healthily. The scheme is free and
open to all retail catering outlets such as sandwich bars, cafes,
restaurants and takeaways that have gained at least 3 stars under the
Tees Valley Food Hygiene Award. |Top|
What would I need to do?
To ensure that the food you serve is generally healthier – this will
probably involve small changes to the ingredients you use or changes
to your cooking methods. This could involve simple changes such as
increasing the proportion of vegetables, pulses and beans in your
recipes; using lower fat alternatives of ingredients such as cheese,
meats and mayonnaise and introducing healthier options to your menu.
As part of the scheme caterers must:
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Take steps to reduce the level of fats in their foods
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Take steps to reduce the level of sugar in their foods
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Take steps to reduce the levels of salt in their foods
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Have fruit and vegetables clearly available
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Offer healthy choices on their menu
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Clearly signpost healthy choices
As a minimum you would need at least one healthy choice in every
category of food you serve such as drinks, sandwiches, hot meals,
snacks.
You would also need to help customers to make informed choices by
introducing and clearly signposting healthy options to your menu.
For further information about the scheme select the following link
About The Scheme
For a selection of healthy catering recipes please select the
following link
Healthy Recipes
For a range of resources and publicity materials please select the
following link
Resources & Publicity Materials
For further information for consumers please select the following
link
Consumer
Information
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Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council