Frozen meal safety concerns are a ‘myth’

Private catering firm apetito, one of the largest suppliers of hot food to the NHS, has claimed that increasing safety concerns around frozen food in hospitals are a ‘myth’.

The company, which provides approximately a fifth of all hot meals served at hospitals in England, Scotland and Wales, was speaking out against campaigners demanding fresh meals in hospitals in the wake of the listeria outbreak.

It is reported that just over half of the NHS’s hot food is bought in from external suppliers as ready meals. Each day patients in nearly 430 hospitals are served 46,000 reheated ready meals which were originally cooked in apetito’s mass-production kitchen and then stored in freezers.

However, following a listeria outbreak in May, linked to pre-packed sandwiches and salads, killed five patients, campaigners have questioned the health service's reliance on mass-produced food.

While Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, mooted the idea of hospitals employing chefs to prepare food fresh on the sites, Paul Freeston, chief executive of apetito, claimed that public perception of mass-produced frozen food was ‘outdated’, further arguing that it was safer than fresh food or meals made in hospital kitchens because it could be tested for bacteria before it was served.

He said: “There’s a myth that food would be much better if it’s made in a hospital by a chef. But in a big hospital, the kitchen can be half a mile from some of the wards. By the time the food has got to the ward it has deteriorated. Our system is about keeping it frozen until the last possible minute and reheating it at the ward so it can be served to patients when it is at its best.”

The Campaign for Better Hospital Food, run by the charity Sustain, maintains that half of hospitals still fail to comply with basic food standards.