News

Campus catering team wins top level Food for Health Award

(26 April 2005)

The Catering Team at the University of Durham’s Queen’s Campus, Stockton, has been recognised for achieving the highest level of standards in food hygiene, service and healthy eating by being awarded all three levels in the Food for Health Award Scheme.

The scheme is sponsored by Stockton on Tees Borough Council Environmental Health Officers, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and the North Tees Primary Care Trust Department of Health Promotion The Food For Health Award recognises and rewards the important contribution that caterers and food providers can make to the health of their customers. It also recognises that healthy food, hygienically prepared and served in a smoke-free environment can contribute to improved health and reduce the risk of serious diseases.

The Waterside Room, overlooking the River Tees seats up to 300 people and offers the University Campus population of over 1,900 staff and students extensive breakfast-to-dinner menu choices, many of which are home-made, healthy options.

The Catering Team are particularly delighted to have attained Level Three of the Award for healthy food which requires that a significant proportion of the menus available meet the accepted guidelines for healthy foods which is low in fats, sugars and salt and high in fibre.

Level Three for nutritional value is generally regarded as being much more difficult to attain in mass catering units and it complements the earlier attainment of Levels One and Two. Level One is for good hygiene standards in storage, preparation and food handling. Level Two is for providing a service which allows customers to purchase or consume food in smoke free conditions.

Catering manager Jan Alderton is rightly proud of the catering team’s achievement. She said : “ While it is expected that all food providers should be able to achieve Levels One and Two, it is not so easy to maintain consistency to meet the more exacting criteria for nutritional value and healthy food. It reflects great credit on the skills and efforts of all our catering staff who take great pride in their work. The hundreds of happy and contented customers who use our services is testimony to our success.”

An addition to the Food For Health award the Queen’s Catering Team have all successfully completed NVQ’s ranging from levels 1 to 3 in Food Service and Production and their continued success has been rewarded by the University by way of a celebration evening.

For further information contact : Jan Alderton, Catering Manager, Durham University Queen’s Campus, Stockton. Tel 0191 334 0098

Media enquiries to : Tom Fennelly. Public Relations Office, Durham University Tel : 0101 344 6078 e-mail : t.p.fennelly@durham.ac.uk