With British Food Fortnight 2018 coming up (22nd September to 7th October), the NHS is celebrating its on-going dedication to buying and serving British, local and seasonal food.

Held in the autumn at the same time as harvest festival, British Food Fortnight is the biggest annual, national celebration of British food and drink. It was established in the wake of the Foot and Mouth crisis, in response to the fact that, though there are numerous food initiatives, projects and events taking place across Britain, there was no overall flagship event to bring them to the public's attention.

Spending over £200 million annually on British food for patients – roughly 75% of the NHS’ budget - founder of Love British Food and British Food Fortnight, Alexia Robinson, spoke highly on the body: “We have an incredible NHS and this year, British Food Fortnight wants to pay tribute to all those hard-working hospital caterers who continue to serve the very best British ingredients in healthy meals, day in day out.

“To commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the caterers working in the NHS, including all members of the Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) serving British food, will be offered a new specially designed Love British Food/NHS logo at no cost in recognition of their support.”

PS100 Chair Andy Jones said: “We want to encourage more hospitals to back British and not switch to cheaper imports. While the average budget for food per patient per day is just £3.45, by using good quality British seasonal ingredients it’s possible to provide healthy and hearty meals for patients within this budget.

“For example, Chris Neale, head of catering at Nottingham University Hospital (NUH), is saving £500,000 a year by procuring approximately 65% of food locally and taking patients’ meal order three hours before the next meal service - distributing it to 90 wards where the food is reheated using Burlodge ovens.

“It is important that NUH patients know the provenance of the ingredients used in their meals and we promote this at every opportunity.”

Emma Brookes, NHS Improvement, added: “When patients are recovering from poor health, it’s really important that hospitals secure the best catering and supply contracts to ensure their nutritional and hydration requirements can be met.

“This can include offering seasonal produce and cooking food fresh on the premises.

“Not only will patients and staff benefit from this but it can also save hospitals money, which can then be reinvested back into frontline services.”