Three ways NHS Trusts can streamline catering operations and ensure compliance 

Our Food Broker Services Framework has 2 trusted providers who can deliver your projects quickly and compliantly. One of these suppliers is Pelican Procurement Services. Michelle Parnham, Head of Sales at Pelican, has shared her advice on what proactive steps catering teams within public sector organisations can take to help mitigate procurement challenges, including rising inflation, increasing food prices and a shortage of people.

Utilise online tools & technology

Online tools are now available for catering teams which streamline many manual tasks and processes, including procurement, ordering, stock control, invoice management and more. One area that Pelican are increasingly supporting is digital ordering in healthcare and NHS environments. With services under strain, removing pen and paper for patient ordering is the way ahead.

They have been working with hospitals and healthcare services to provide a bedside electronic ordering solution. Pelican’s Picnic food ordering module creates a much better experience for the patient, who can see pictures of meals on a tablet and more easily order them. It also provides a huge amount of control by the catering team, who can see orders building, remove items if stock is low, or add specials, all in real-time.

Our Food Broker Services user guide shows how you can be benefitting from the above services when procuring through our framework. The full user guide can be found on the Food Broker Services Framework page.

Efficiently adhere to the latest regulations

Any organisation serving food and drink must be aware of – and adhere to – the latest food safety regulations and allergen labelling. Pelican is aware of the importance of labelling and displaying relevant allergen information to assure consumers of exactly what they are buying.

While resources may be stretched, no corners can be cut; therefore, establishing a system that tracks the allergen content of all foods will save a great deal of time and ensure that nothing will be missed. For clients Pelican work with, all centrally agreed products will be automatically included in the Pelican Pi system, which consists of the latest allergen data. If any new products are added, the data is updated, meaning every outlet has access to the latest source of information at any time. For operations running multiple sites, this level of consistency offers significant reassurance. Plus, all sites are buying from an approved product list containing the allergen information they need.

Seek an outsourced expert partnership

There are many advantages to seeking help from an external outsourced partnership. Pelican, ensure that supplier management is taken care of - with price, performance and quality regularly audited. They provide expert insights, so you can plan ahead and make changes to future purchases or menus where necessary. For example, Pelican produce a quarterly market report, which provides intelligence on trends to be aware of – such as the impact of inflation, avian flu, seasonal lines or stock availability.

As mentioned earlier, they also offer an online cloud-based platform Pi, which covers everything from placing online orders to stock management, deliveries to invoicing and payments, budget, reporting, menu management, and allergen issues – taking care of otherwise time-consuming tasks. All of their services and systems come at no cost or overhead to your organisation.

Access Pelican through our Food Broker Services Framework

Pelican's expertise and services can all be accessed, quickly and compliantly, for all public sector organisations by using our specialist Food Broker Services Framework. Find out more today:

Food Broker Services Framework