As new hospital food rules are introduced, the CIEH ask is enough being done?
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH)
| Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) today welcomed health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s proposals for ‘legally binding’ improved standards of food on offer to hospital patients.
However, as supporters of Sustain’s Campaign For Better Hospital Food, the CIEH questioned whether these proposals would go far enough.
Principal Policy Officer Jenny Morris, MBE, said:
‘The CIEH welcomes the move to improve hospital food and looks forward to seeing a real difference in the food and drink on offer. But in order to make a real impact there must be more transparency and proper accountability. Therefore, we agree with Sustain that public consultation on standards is needed, that the standards should be within legislation and that there should be robust monitoring of achievements.’
The Campaign For Better Hospital Food has called for mandatory nutritional, environmental and ethical standards for food served to patients in NHS hospitals in England.
These standards would ensure that hospital food promotes health, protects the environment and supports ethical food and farming practices.
The Campaign for Better Hospital Food’s coordinator, Alex Jackson, said: ‘We want to see hospital food standards set down in legislation, similarly to school food standards, and therefore universally applied to all hospitals and protected by publicly elected representatives for generations to come.’
