East Lancs food served to Liverpool patients (From Lancashire Telegraph)

East Lancs food served to Liverpool patients

2:43pm Friday 30th May 2008 in Search By Ben Briggs

FOOD producers in East Lancashire are benefiting from a hospital's commitment to cutting its food miles by sourcing from local businesses.

University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool, alrea-dy has a £1.5million grocery bill and, in a bid to cut food miles, is buying more local produce from East Lancashire companies.

The hospital has recen-tly started taking more products from Ramsbottom ice cream company Cool Delights and Longridge cheesemaker Cleggs. It also has a contract with Baxenden's Hollands Pies.

With more products, such as cheese, yoghurts and cream being sourced from these firms, hospit-al chiefs said they were keen to bring in food from the surrounding area.

Catering services man-ager Anne Coleman, who was brought up in Blackburn, said reducing food miles had led them to think of comp-anies closer to the hospital.

She said: "We now double-up with a number of deliveries, buying our cooking oil from the firm that supplies frozen and dried food, and using a solid block detergent so it takes up less space and means fewer deliveries.

"We feed 1,100 patients a day, giving them break-fast, a three-course lunch, an evening meal, and snacks, all for £2.80 a head.

"We were serving Double Gloucester cheese at one point and now we look to use brands like Garstang Blue. It's good to have the local angle.

"Now we've shown that you can be local and on budget, other trusts are coming to us to learn how we've done it."

Catering manager San-dra Higgins added: "We got the idea from a hospital project in Cornwall where they sourced 80per cent of their produce locally.

"We set ourselves a 100-mile radius and now have only six suppliers outside that limit."