BDA Supports Calls for Hospital Food Standards

The British Dietetic Association (BDA) is supporting a new report from Sustain – the alliance for better food and farming – calling for better hospital food with the introduction of hospital food standards in England.
The BDA, founded in 1936, is the professional association for registered dieticians in the UK.  It is the nation’s largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals with over 7,000 members.  The BDA is also an active trade union.
As part of its Better Hospital Food campaign, the Sustain report called Twenty Years of Hospital Food Failure found that between 1992 and 2013, Government introduced 21 failed voluntary initiatives to improve hospital food, costing more than £54 million of taxpayers’ money (enough to pay for thirty four new hospital kitchens); Government did not act when at least 14 warnings from government advisers, MPs, commercial caterers, and health, environmental and animal welfare organisations that voluntary initiatives to improve hospital food were failing; and journalist and broadcaster Loyd Grossman and five different celebrity chefs have been appointed to lead these voluntary initiatives: Albert Roux, John Benson-Smith, Mark Hix, Anton Edelmann and Heston Blumenthal.
Supporting Twenty Years of Hospital Food Failure, British Dietetic Association Honorary Chairman, Helen Davidson commented, “Good food and appropriate nutrition must, at all times, be an absolute priority.  We should never underestimate the impact this has on patient treatment, well being and improvement.  Indeed, food and nutrition can be just as important as medication for some and patients should look forward to meal times.  As it stands, the scope for this to improve in hospitals is massive.”