Patient food choice at the Pilgrim Hospital, Boston in Lincolnshire has been significantly improved, and catering simplified, following the 550- bed facility’s switch from a 15-year-old plated, patient meal system to a new bulk regeneration service using equipment supplied by E & R Moffat.
The hospital’s catering staff continue to produce their own cook-chill meals from a central production unit using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, but the hospital’s facilities manager, Clive Marriott, said while they were able to serve good food with the previous system, reheating caused major difficulties. He explained: “The meals were plated up cold in the kitchen, transported, and then reheated on the ward. The food we provided was always good, but the meals tended to dry out on the plate, making the crockery hard to wash, and vegetables would turn soggy and discolour under the steel lids.” In the new system the food is transferred chilled, in bulk, in food shuttle buses to satellite ward kitchens. It is then is reheated in Moffat’s hostess regeneration trolleys and plated at time of serving on the wards. “The new system has made a tremendous difference to our food quality,” Clive Marriott said. “The Moffat trolleys control the temperature to prevent burning or drying out, and effectively finish the cooking process on the ward. Dishes like cottage pie and lasagne thus have nice crisp tops, and the vegetables can be served al dente if that’s what we want.”
