Awards dished up for Healthier Menus

3 June 2011

The first businesses to receive South Lakeland District Council’s Healthier Menus Award will be acknowledged for providing wholesome healthy food choices on the menu for their customers. 

At Kendal Town Hall in the Georgian Room on Tuesday 7 June at 2.30pm, Councillor Clare Feeney-Johnson and the Chief Executive, Lawrence Conway will be presenting certificates to a number of local food businesses from across the district that have won the award. 

To qualify for the award, food businesses must maintain high standards of hygiene, and achieve a star rating of four or five stars through the Scores on the Doors scheme.  They must provide healthier food choices on the menu available every day and healthier techniques and ingredients should be used during the preparation. 

Councillor Clare Feeney-Johnson, portfolio holder for Environment and Sustainability, said: “I would like to congratulate all the businesses for winning the Healthier Menus Award which supports the districts healthy eating campaign.  Residents and visitors will reap the benefits by being offered healthy food choices when eating out.  I am really pleased that we already have so many local businesses who meet the standard and would encourage all food businesses in our district to sign up to the scheme and promote healthy eating.” 

Once the award has been presented, it will be valid until the next routine food hygiene inspection but random checks will take place to ensure the menu continues to meet the criteria. 

SLDC worked in partnership with Cumbria NHS and Trading Standards on the Healthier Menus Award, which encourages all food-catering businesses such as restaurants, cafes, pubs and staff canteens to offer their customers healthier food choices.  With the help of NHS Cumbria, the council produced a simple straightforward guide to help food businesses create a healthier menu that offers suggestions on how to be creative and make small changes to their cooking methods and ingredients to produce high quality appealing dishes. 

For more information about the Healthier Menus Award check out the council’s website or contact the SLDC Food Safety Team on 0845 050 4434.