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The sign of healthier food

www.healthylivingaward.co.uk

Welcometo

coretalk

The healthyliving award team was proud to celebrate the success of our latest first term and long-standing award holders at our recent award ceremony at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. Find out more in the Newsbites section on page 3.

In this edition of coretalk we feature a wide range of award holders from a supermarket staff restaurant and adult resource centres to NHS Aroma cafes. We hear about how the award has

made a difference to their customers’ habits.

Springtime can make us think of new beginnings and fresh starts. For Joanne Burns, our longest standing member of the healthyliving team, this means a new position. Joanne starts a new post on secondment with the Food and Drink Federation Scotland as Reformulation Connector in March. We wish her all the best in her new job.

coretalkIn this issue:

What’s cooking?Bought-in products NibblesPublic Health ScotlandTable talkHealthier options on the menuNewsbitesRewarding successTasty morselsSuper store A flavour of...?Asian salmon Sowing the seedsHealthy service60-second microbitesThe Merrick Cafe, Newton StewartDates for your diary

49 Spring 2019

Public Health Scotland Public Health Reform is a partnership between the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). The reform programme aims to help public sector bodies, communities and employers work together to improve health and wellbeing.

To achieve this, the reform programme has agreed six public health priorities for Scotland. The agreed priorities reflect public health challenges that it is important to focus on over the next decade to improve the health of the nation. The programme will also establish a new body, Public Health Scotland, in December 2019, which will merge NHS Health Scotland and Public Health and Intelligence.

Work is under way to engage stakeholders and partners to set out the role and function of the new body, and a formal consultation was launched in February 2019. To find out how you can contribute to the consultation and to public health reform overall visit https://publichealthreform.scot or, to get involved, email publichealthreform@scot.gov

What’s cooking?

Nibbles

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Bought-in productsAs well as the food you prepare from scratch, caterers must also think carefully about the bought-in ingredients they use when preparing a healthyliving item or dish, or whole products that you want to count towards your 50% (70% at plus) healthyliving items. These include products like complete ready meals; meat, fish and vegetarian packaged products; cooking sauces; soups; pre-packed sandwiches; savoury snacks like crisps; sweet snacks including cereal and fruit bars; bakery products; and yogurts.

To check if a product is suitable you should look at the nutrition box on the product label or ask for the product specification from your supplier. Compare the information with the nutrient specifications laid out on pages 52–54 of the ‘What do I need to do?’ booklet within your Guidance for Applicants folder. The bought-in products criteria can also be viewed at www.healthylivingaward.co.uk/documents/164

While the healthyliving award doesn’t endorse, or require you to use, specific products or brands, the award team has checked products with a number of suppliers and food manufacturers to build a concise list of items which comply. As manufacturers may change the nutritional specifications of their products at any time, the list is updated regularly. Please contact the team for a copy of the most up-to-date version. Please also get in touch if you find other brands or products that meet the bought-in product nutritional specifications which can be added to the list.

If you have any other queries relating to the bought-in criteria or need help when talking to suppliers, please contact us.

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Healthier options on the menuThe Eric Liddell Centre is a registered charity and community hub that supports some of the most vulnerable people in Edinburgh. The centre gained the healthyliving award at the start of 2018.

Centre chef Fiona Lemmon says: ‘We provide food for our community cafe, which has a regular client base: from older people to young mums and children who come to the centre to participate in a variety of activities from Zumba to Gymini and our specialist dementia day care service as well as meetings held in the centre.’

Fiona explains why getting involved with the award was so important: ‘We got involved to provide healthy food to our users and to highlight current dietary guidelines and associated health benefits. We now have low-fat spread portions on offer as an alternative to butter portions, low-fat dressing for our salads, and are baking with low-fat spread. We also have more gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free products in the cafe and more promotions involving fresh fruit.’

Fiona adds: ‘The benefits the award brings include the cafe clients having confidence that we prepare food with their health in mind and the cafe volunteers being more informed about the food they serve. The customers are happy with the selection of healthier home baking products, the homemade soups and salads and the “free fruit for kids” promotion.’

Table talk

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Newsbites

broad spectrum of food and health work in Scotland that he has been involved with. And Fergus Chambers once again hosted the event, coordinating the day with his usual panache.

As well as celebrating the success of our newest award holders, we took the opportunity to celebrate some of our most committed long-term award holders, some of whom have held their awards since 2006 and are currently working towards their seventh term.

Congratulations to all of our new award holders.

Rewarding successWe recently celebrated the success of our latest first term healthyliving award holders at the Glasgow Concert Hall. More than 50 first term award holders were commended on the day and received their award from Gary Maclean, Scotland’s National Chef.

The guest speakers for the event led a variety of interesting and topical discussions relating to Scotland’s food and health landscape. Anne Lee, organisational lead for health and work programmes, NHS Health Scotland, informed us about the changing landscape of public health in Scotland, from the development of the new Public Health Scotland body to changing public health priorities. Heather Peace from Food Standards Scotland updated the audience on the recent Out of Home consultation and future work priorities. Gary Maclean, National Chef for Scotland and ‘MasterChef: The Professionals’ winner 2016, gave us an insight into the

Super storeWaitrose in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, has held the healthyliving award since 2015. The site feeds 170 staff throughout the day and night.

Jim Boyle, branch cook, explains: ‘I have been in this role for seven years and also look after the other Waitrose stores in Scotland, training any new partners joining the catering side of the business. I started working with the healthyliving award several years ago and thought it would be a good idea to see if a healthy eating plan could work. We started with small steps by introducing more fish and pasta and I now offer a range of healthy menus that suit everyone.’

Jim says the partners in Waitrose relish the new healthy recipes he serves: ‘Since starting healthyliving I have received many requests for copies of healthy recipes. Being a large supermarket we also have our own healthy option menus which are published in our free newspaper which is available in all our stores. I prepare and serve these as our staff are often asked by customers if they have tried them. We also host healthy themed lunches for our partners such as for Burns Night and St Valentine’s Day.

Jim adds: ‘The reason I continue to be involved in the award is knowing you are helping me to make other people eat healthily.’

Asian salmon Recipe courtesy of Mark Sturrock, head chef, Inspire Catering, Erskine Stewart’s Melville School and Inspire Chef of the Year 2018/19

Method

• Preheat the oven to 165° C.• In a non-stick pan, sear the salmon, skin side

down, until golden brown in colour.• Move the salmon to a non-stick baking tray,

skin side up, then place in the oven for six minutes.

• Heat the stock, then add the ginger, lime zest, lime juice and garlic. Cook for five minutes.

• Briefly blanch the pak choi, sugar snap peas, carrot, asparagus and samphire in the stock.Remove them when they’re cooked and divide them between four warmed bowls.

• Strain the stock into a clean saucepan, and check and adjust the seasoning as required.

• Top the vegetables with the salmon, pour some of the vegetable broth around the fish, and top with coriander.

Ingredients

4x 150 g sustainable Shetland salmon fillets with skin on, pin-boned and scaled

4 pak choi (small) with the root base removed to separate the leaves

50 g of sugar snap peas

½ a litre of vegetable stock

1 x lemongrass stick, crushed

50 g of carrots, ribboned

12 asparagus tips and middles, peeled

10 g of pickled pink ginger, cut into matchsticks

1 fresh lime, juiced and zested

½ a clove of garlic, sliced

10 g of chopped fresh coriander to taste

50 g of samphire

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A flavour of…?Serves four

Tasty morsels

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Sowing the seeds

Healthy service

The healthyliving award team proudly works with a wide variety of catering outlets across Scotland. One sector we are delighted to work in is NHS staff and visitor feeding. To date we have over 160 prestigious healthyliving plus awards across the NHS estate from NHS caterers, private caterers and third sector catering companies. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC) is one of the largest boards we work with and they hold 29 healthyliving plus awards.

Joe Gilbey, NHS GGC retail manager, says: ‘We serve around 4,000 people per day across 18 sites – 10 are dining rooms and the remaining eight sites are Aroma units. We offer a full range of services including breakfast, lunch and evening meals as well as a full snack menu including soups, sandwiches and toasties.’

Joe says the healthyliving award plus principles have made a substantial difference to NHS staff and visitor feeding: ‘The award has helped to educate staff, visitors and patients in healthier choices. It gives choice to customers who want to make a difference to their own health. The award also showcases many good quality products that meet nutritional criteria.’

Joe says the biggest challenge he and his team had to overcome to gain the plus award was ‘achieving the correct balance of foods to meet the award criteria’. He adds: ‘We designed a product list that we populated with suitable products to achieve the correct balance across the board.’

Joe believes the main benefit the award has brought ‘has been the education of our customers and staff’. He adds: ‘Some

customers haven’t realised that some of the products they are purchasing are lower in fat, sugar and salt. Our staff have benefited and can now steer customers to our healthier alternatives. We don’t really have to do anything differently now as we have held the award for so long it’s pretty much second nature. We do, however, like to challenge our suppliers to offer healthier options to help us refresh our offer and keep things fresh. We also look at what others are doing in terms of healthy eating to see if there’s anything we can adopt.’

Joe says: ‘As a board we are proud to have achieved the healthyliving award plus for over 10 years and we are happy to promote healthy eating to our staff, visitors and patients.’

Congratulations to all of our NHS catered sites which have risen to the challenge and achieved the healthyliving award plus.

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60-second microbites

The Merrick Cafe, Newton StewartLouise Cannon, support coordinator and manager at the Merrick Cafe in Newton Stewart, Dumfries & Galloway, has recently been awarded the healthyliving award for the fourth term. The Merrick Cafe is an activity and resource centre caring for adults with learning disabilities. It operates out of the Merrick Leisure Centre and runs a pop-up cafe two days each week which gives work experience to 15 of its clients. Most of its custom comes from parents, carers, leisure centre customers and schoolteachers.

Q: What were your main reasons for applying for the healthyliving award?

A: To help our service users understand what is meant by healthy living and to be able to offer healthy foods to our customers.

Q: Do you feel working towards and achieving the award has been worthwhile?

A: Yes, very. It has been a useful tool for educating our service users and customers to help educate them on healthy options.

Q: What do you think the healthyliving award means to your customers?

A: The award helps our customers and clients to realise our volunteer staff are well informed about healthy choices.

Email for general enquiries and newsletter: enquiries@healthylivingaward.co.uk

If you would like to be added to our newsletter mailing list, would prefer to receive Coretalk in electronic form, or would like to unsubscribe, please contact us.

We are happy to consider requests for other languages or formats. Please contact 0131 314 5300 or email nhs.healthscotland-alternativeformats@nhs.net

healthyliving award, NHS Health Scotland, 5th Floor, Meridian Court, 5 Cadogan Street, Glasgow G2 6QE

Phone: 0141 414 2880 Fax: 0141 414 2818 Website: www.healthylivingaward.co.uk www.facebook.com/HealthyLivingAward Twitter: @hlaward

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Dates for your diary

National Vegetarian Week 13–19 May 2019 Order free resources to support your event from the website. www.nationalvegetarianweek.org

British Sandwich Week 19–26 May 2019 A week-long celebration of this versatile food-to-go. www.britishsandwichweek.com

British Nutrition Foundation Healthy Eating Week 10–14 June 2019 A dedicated week to encourage organisations to focus on healthy eating and drinking and physical activity, and celebrate healthy living. www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/hew

Summer of sport Celebrate this summer’s sporting events, such as Wimbledon or the European Athletics Indoor Championships, by providing a range of healthy and nutritious foods.