Some like it cold
The catering market for frozen products, ranging from vegetables to ready meals, is worth over £1.2b in the UK, according to market research organisation Marketpower.
A fair proportion of that sum is spent on frozen chips - very few caterers make their own. Almost everyone uses frozen peas, as the season for fresh peas is so short and within a few hours even the sweetest varieties become bullet hard.
Despite the fact that frozen chips and peas are so widely accepted, there is still a degree of prejudice against other frozen food.
If a customer goes into several different pubs and eats lasagne, it would be safe to assume that what is served has not been made in the pub's small kitchen, but reheated from frozen. That does not mean the lasagne doesn't look and taste good. In fact, over the past 10 years pub food has helped to redeem the UK's culinary reputation for value-for-money eating out.
When it comes to chilled foods, however, acceptability is based on the fact that products are brought in for almost immediate use, and as a basis for menus, not just thawed and served. Chilled products give a perception of higher value and quality. Their price premium over frozen helps to underline this, but convenience and high quality are used as justification for the presence of chilled products in the kitchen. Careful storage and date-watching are essential to comply with the due diligence requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990.
According to Mike Richards, sales and marketing director of Whitworth's Foods, caterers choose ready-prepared fresh vegetables in preference to frozen because of "pressures to reduce costs, to achieve more stringent safety standards and to improve taste".
He says that improvements in packaging now permit a shelf life of up to seven days after preparation and sealing. "Measured against unprepared produce clearly they cost more to buy, but do they cost more to use?" Richards asks. "Prepared produce provides a 100% yield - there is no waste and quality is consistent."
His views are shared by Tim Johnson, unit catering manager of Queens Medical Centre, University Hospital Trust, Nottingham. "We have 1,100 patients, and 2,000 staff. We like to use chilled products where possible. They appear to be better quality, especially desserts," he says.
Johnson buys equal volumes of chilled and frozen food - this includes vegetables, and some cold sweets. Meat is bought fresh from Larderfresh and various other sources. The hospital's staff dining room has a carvery, and Johnson's team also needs to respond to hospitality catering for meetings. Ready-prepared chilled products are ordered by fax for the next day, thus reducing waste.
Bass Taverns uses increasing amounts of chilled food. Colin Okin, the company's food purchasing manager, says it is now using five times more fresh, raw vegetables than frozen and chilled varieties combined. However he adds: "Our purchasing of chilled ready-prepared vegetables has increased dramatically. The quality of these chilled products gives us a much better offering to our customer, which is our prime objective. It has also saved our staff a lot of time cleaning and peeling."
FISH
Suppliers must be able to deliver chilled fish products swiftly enough to ensure maximum freshness.
The 94-bedroom Forte Crest Brighouse hotel, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, specialises in exotic fish, featuring on its à la carte menu parrot fish, skate, gurnod and American sea bass. Rees Faulkner-Walford, senior chef de partie favours chilled over frozen: "Freezing has a negative effect: the intense cold damages the fish, producing an inferior product. The higher price we have to pay for the chilled fish is offset by its freshness," he says.
He believes that the switch to dealing with a larger supplier rather than a local one ensures greater control of due diligence requirements, an important issue for the supply, storage and handling of fish.
The growing number of catering outlets using chilled food is mirrored by the growth in business experienced by foodservice distributors. One of these is Holroyd Meek, which operates a multi-temperature service.
Shared warehousing and centralised distribution helps with short shelf life products and ensures a safe cold chain.
Booker Fitch has recently launched Booker Foodlink to offer central distribution for caterers with set menus and bespoke products.
Divisional controller Mark Powell says: "This group of clients doesn't need a general wholesaler, they deal direct with a supplier - but they do need multi-temperature distribution and access to chilled products fast. Some customers would be those dealing in large volumes of limited product range, where chef choice is limited, hence they use more chilled and frozen alternatives."
A newcomer to the scene is Larderfresh which specialises in the chilled food area, with a growing selection of lines from fish to ready-prepared vegetables and desserts, sourced from different specialised suppliers, a proportion of them in mainland Europe.
EXOTICS
It has two fish buyers at the Birmingham market, and also offers speciality exotic fish. Baby vegetables are bought from Rungis market in Paris.
De-skilling and the cutback of qualified catering staff in the current economic climate, are often suggested as reasons for the increase in use of ready-prepared produce, whether frozen or chilled, in all but the most exclusive restaurants and hotels.
Given the buying power of the multiples for own label in retail, it is increasingly to foodservice that companies are turning to sell their products.
One such company is BG Foods whose chilled desserts under the Kool label are established at retail level. It is increasing distribution for caterers through national wholesalers, with new frozen rather than chilled products.
EUROPE
Looking towards Europe, Brake Bros has bought four businesses in France. According to Richard Ashness, the company's European business development manager: "The turnover for frozen foods in foodservice in France is about the same for the UK, but there are major opportunities for expansion in independent restaurants, schools and contract caterers. The products in demand are the basic vegetables, fish and meat, but with new interest in value added such as pre-cut gÆ'teaux."
Gardner Merchant has been active in France and Belgium since the 1970s, and its French operation, Ceres, has contracts with large companies such as IBM and Rhône Poulenc as well as schools, universities and hospitals. In France, company employees expect a full meal at lunchtime.
Ceres director general Jean LeRoux discusses the different attitudes. "Chilled specialities including meat and charcuterie are fragile products and we use specialist suppliers. In the near future we will see two or three specially chosen suppliers, and others will die. Competition throughout Europe is intense."
La Barbe restaurant in Reigate, Surrey, finds it can source its French products in the UK. Manager Serge Tassi says: "We get our rabbit, chilled, two or three times a week from Rue Lamartine in Covent Garden, and virtuallyall our other ingredients are fresh and chef-prepared. We do use frozen French bread, as we've no baking expertise."
With a pan-European approach to products and more sophisticated distribution, caterers need to take more advantage of the ever-expanding range of products available. o
TABLE: The catering market for frozen products, ranging from vegetables to ready meals, is worth over £1.2b in the UK, according to market research organisation Marketpower.
A fair proportion of that sum is spent on frozen chips - very few caterers make their own. Almost everyone uses frozen peas, as the season for fresh peas is so short and within a few hours even the sweetest varieties become bullet hard.
Despite the fact that frozen chips and peas are so widely accepted, there is still a degree of prejudice against other frozen food.
If a customer goes into several different pubs and eats lasagne, it would be safe to assume that what is served has not been made in the pub's small kitchen, but reheated from frozen. That does not mean the lasagne doesn't look and taste good. In fact, over the past 10 years pub food has helped to redeem the UK's culinary reputation for value-for-money eating out.
When it comes to chilled foods, however, acceptability is based on the fact that products are brought in for almost immediate use, and as a basis for menus, not just thawed and served. Chilled products give a perception of higher value and quality. Their price premium over frozen helps to underline this, but convenience and high quality are used as justification for the presence of chilled products in the kitchen. Careful storage and date-watching are essential to comply with the due diligence requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990.
According to Mike Richards, sales and marketing director of Whitworth's Foods, caterers choose ready-prepared fresh vegetables in preference to frozen because of "pressures to reduce costs, to achieve more stringent safety standards and to improve taste".
He says that improvements in packaging now permit a shelf life of up to seven days after preparation and sealing. "Measured against unprepared produce clearly they cost more to buy, but do they cost more to use?"
TABLE: SIZE OF CATERING
MARKET 1992/3
Total food
purchases: £6,600m
Fresh and
chilled: £1,300m
Frozen
unprocessed: £540m
Frozen
processed: £680m
Ambient: £1,335m
(Source: Marketpower)
