apetito
apetito is the leading producer of delicious and nutritious meals to the health and social care sector, from nurseries and schools, to care homes and hospitals. Every meal is developed by our team of talented chefs, nutritionists and dietitians. With over 400 meals and market-leading specialist nutrition ranges, we have something for all meal occasions, to suit all tastes, dietary requirements and cultural preferences. We are leading the way in ethics and sustainability, with initiatives such as the NHS’ first closed-loop recycling scheme for ready meal trays, and our Reduced Carbon Menus.
Your Company’s Approach to Healthcare:
With over 20 years of experience perfecting hospital meals, we are the leading provider of ready prepared meals for patients in the UK, supplying over 540 hospitals across the country every day.
We are dedicated to supplying quality, nutritious food, creating an efficient catering system, and providing an excellent service. Our wide range of over 400 meals including market-leading specialist nutrition ranges, caters to all needs, meal occasions, and dietary preferences, and we are always developing these ranges based on customer feedback.
Our dedicated Healthcare Team work closely with our customers to provide a service that is bespoke to their needs. We are the only healthcare food provider with an in-house Training & Operations team, and alongside our dedicated Catering Consultants, support our customers to create true partnerships, looking for innovative solutions to best meet the needs of their sites.
Impact of Your Products/Services on Healthcare:
Our hospital meals range offers delicious and nutritious hospital meals that aid patient recovery, as well as catering to the needs of healthcare customers with our bulk offering and CarteChoix, our innovate individual plated meals solution.
We are leading the way with our specialist nutrition range, including or IDDSI-compliant texture modified meals that prioritise safety for patients with swallowing difficulties, as well as being visually appealing. Additionally, our Finger Foods range enables those with dexterity issues to pick up meal components more easily and still enjoy a nutritionally balanced full meal. We’ve also created energy dense smaller meal options to ensure malnourished patients, or those with smaller appetites, get the nutrition they need.
For peace of mind for our customers and patients, our accredited laboratories and strict procedures make our food one of the safest catering options available for the health and social care sector. We have 3 state of the art laboratories at our site in Wiltshire, independently audited and approved by the Campden Laboratory Approval Scheme (CLAS) to ISO17025. Our unique positive-release policy means we analyse a sample of food from every batch of meals we create, and no food is released for sale until the absence of pathogens is established. This includes the testing of all meals in our Free From range, ensuring they are free from all 14 of the main allergens, as well as onion and garlic, with no compromise on taste or flavour.
Innovation in Your Business:
We are always looking at new ways we can innovate within the market, both through our products and systems.
Our sustainability initiative, Project Boomerang, is the NHS’ first closed-loop recycling system for ready meal trays. After initially being introduced in 2021 into our consumer business, Wiltshire Farm Foods, Project Boomerang was launched into the NHS in 2023 and has seen an impressive tray return rate ever since, reaching over 50% from participating hospitals.
Under the scheme, all meal trays used in our CarteChoix and specialist nutrition ranges can be collected back directly by ourselves and recycled into completely new trays, right here in the UK – with a guarantee that 100% of trays returned will be recycled into new trays.
Since launch, the scheme has seen a total of over 25 million trays returned from both our Wiltshire Farm Foods and Healthcare customers nationwide. The initiative was also an integral part of apetito being recently awarded The King’s Awards for Enterprise in Sustainable Development 2024, demonstrating our commitment to sustainable business practices.
Future Direction:
We are always looking at ways to further develop our Healthcare offering and support our customers in order to best meet their needs.
Our in-house team of dedicated Chefs and Dietitians are constantly developing our product range, ensure it meets the needs of all customers, including developments to improve dishes following customer feedback, as well as ensure products meet dietary coding requirements.
We are also always exploring ways to improve sustainability across the sector, with new initiatives that can help the NHS towards their Net Zero targets. As well as our tray returning scheme Project Boomerang, we recently launched our Reduced Carbon Menus and are supporting our customers to make small changes to their menu offerings in order to reduce carbon emissions through mealtimes.