Catering Guide Bury - Health & Sustainability
Catering Guide Bury - Health & Sustainability
Catering Guide Bury - Health & Sustainability
.jpg)
Our food environment can positively influence people's health by taking steps to promote the healthier choice as the easier choice.
This guide has been made to support local food businesses to celebrate healthier and sustainable practices, and to share some useful supporting information. The guide aligns with the Council's Climate Action Plan, as well as the Bury Good Food Charter.
We hope that your food business can consider committing to some of these examples within the guide, such as:
Reducing food miles by purchasing what is available seasonally and locally.
Considering how food is packaged, and being mindful of packaging you give out to customers.
Supporting local/independent businesses and markets by shopping locally.
Cooking fresh meals from simple ingredients.
Making tap water readily available.
By making small changes you can provide healthier and sustainable food options to your customers. Please see the governments Eat Well Guide for a detailed breakdown of each food groups and top tips for healthier cooking methods. The following are a few tips that you may wish to start with:
Choose sunflower, corn and rapeseed unsaturated oils, which are good alternatives to saturated fats such as lard, palm oil, ghee and butter.
Check labels to see spreads or oils used contain less than 15g of saturated fat per 100g.
Baking or grilling are healthier forms of cooking compared to frying. If however you are using a deep fat fryer there are methods that can be used to reduce the amount of oil absorbed by the food. The oil in the fryer should be properly maintained and the oil regularly replaced. Keep the fryer temperature between 175 and 190C, and pat the produce dry of excess oil before serving. If serving chips, consider cutting them thick instead of thin, as they will absorb much less oil.
When seasoning food use herbs and spices to enhance flavour, and try to use less salt where possible.
Offer a variety of seasonal fruit, vegetables, or salad on your menu.
Offer healthier versions of salad dressing and condiments.
Demonstrate a commitment to reducing salt by not automatically giving out salt sachets, and if possible avoid putting salt pots on tables to discourage adding of salt to food by habit.
By offering a range of portion sizes which are priced appropriately, you can meet more of your customers needs and help reduce waste. Some of your younger or older customers may require or prefer smaller portions.
Use the Government’s Eatwell guide when deciding on portion sizes for your menu.
Actively promote the range of portion sizes available.
By putting a focus on waste management, you are ensuring that the business is not only clean and tidy, but also waste is being dealt with in a sustainable manner. Waste receptacles should be kept clean and clear, and recycling options should be promoted. Paper and cardboard, as well as plastics and cans, should be disposed of in the correct way by both staff and customers. Whilst material waste is one way of maintaining a sustainable environment, food waste is a significant area to work on that can help your business to be more sustainable. Ideally, your business should have measures in place with front and back of house staff to ensure that food waste is being reduced at every opportunity, such as offering to package food for customers to take home.
Guardians of Grub and WRAP both have a wide variety of supporting resources on the reduction of food waste. Please also see some examples of Apps for reducing food waste: Olio, Too Good To Go and ShareWaste.
.jpg)
.jpg)
While takeaway packaging is often needed, many of these boxes are made from non- recyclable plastics and polystyrene and are included in the single use plastics ban that came into effect on 1st October 2023. Now is a good time to consider alternatives and how this can be promoted among your patrons. Pre-packaged products should also be wrapped or packaged in a way that is sustainable. Buying from local producers helps to reduce food miles and fuel consumption and allows the produce to remain fresher for longer. Where possible share with your customers where your local food has come.
Please also see the Greater Manchester Green City Plastics Free Campaign, the Manchester Guide to Organising Sustainable Events, and Sustains Every Mouthful Counts Toolkit.
Drinks options
Front of House staff are well placed to promote healthier and more sustainable choices from the menu, one such way could be with drinks choices. Front of House could ensure that healthier drinks choices are promoted at the till, which could help customers to make a last minute choice. Having attractive displays and promotional material around the till/serving area can also help influence the customers to make more sustainable choices when it comes to their drinks. Displays in chillers should aim to have a split of 50/50 of healthier soft drink choices, such as water or milk.
Promoting tap water is a good way to help reduce the amount of plastic waste.
Businesses can also participate in a refill schemes, allowing customers to refill their own personal bottles. This could also apply to reusable coffee cups, and businesses can offer a discount to those who bring their own cup for their hot drink.
When preparing hot drinks, businesses could offer a variety of dairy alternatives to milk. This could include plant based alternatives, such as oat milk, almond milk and many more. Businesses can also strive to reduce the amount of other waste that is produced from making hot drinks. Examples could include removing wooden stirrers, and replacing them with spoons that can be washed at the end of the day. Single use sugar packets could also be removed and replaced with refillable sugar dispensers.
Breastfeeding mothers can get very thirsty when feeding. Where possible ensure that they feel comfortable, such as offering a drink of water, helping to create an inclusive environment for all. Please see the following links for further info on breastfeeding support in Bury and posters you can display:
All food businesses should ensure that they are registered with Environmental Health. Please also see the following link on: applying for a food hygiene rating visit. Once registered you will be eligible for a food hygiene rating visit. Should you need further information please email: commercial@bury.gov.uk. After an inspection, the rating will be uploaded by the local authority so that it is published on the Food hygiene ratings website.
To further help keep customers safe, food businesses should make sure staff are fully up to date on food safety training. The Food Standards Agency provide a wide range of training materials via the following link: Safer food, better business for caterers | Food Standards Agency. As well as having fully trained staff in food hygiene, its essential staff are fully allergen aware. Allergen requests should be dealt with effectively through the use of an allergen folder which should be updated and reviewed regularly. The Food Standards Agency provides an allergens checklist for businesses, which can be accessed at the following link: Allergen checklist for food businesses | Food Standards Agency.
