The milk maze

Domestic trends often serve as signposts that caterers ignore at their peril. Recognising consumers' growing commitment to "healthier" eating in the home, menus across many market sectors increasingly offer a choice of light, low-calorie foods.

According to independent research commissioned by Pritchitt Foods, which supplies caterers with milk in individual plastic pots, nearly 60% of consumers now choose to drink half-fat or skimmed milk. But is this clear need being provided for, and does this provision extend to the 14ml portion milk pot?

In setting out to find an answer, Caterer discovered that British Rail was on the right track when it came to healthy options. BR caterer the OBS Company, serves only Pritchitt's Millac Maid half-fat milk pots in all buffet bars on Inter-City trains, while offering travellers using the restaurant a choice of fresh or skimmed milk in jugs. Senior brands manager Andy Madill says research shows that 56% of customers preferred half-fat or skimmed milk, while 18% would choose full-fat.

At Booker Fitch Food Services, marketing controller Amanda Delaney confirms that the OBS Company is in step with an industry-wide trend: "In keeping with market preferences, the foodservice industry has followed the retail sector and caterers are moving away from full-fat portion milk pots towards half-fat and skimmed milk. Over 1992/93, milk portions have gradually gained market share from cream portions with sales of the former showing an increase of 17% over this period."

According to Delaney, the growing popularity of reduced-fat milk has been boosted by healthy eating drives: on average, 51% of consumers in all UK regions show a preference for reduced-fat milk, except in the North which has the lowest consumption of reduced-fat milk of any region at 43%.

But these statistics conceal the whims of consumer tastes and behaviour outside the home. According to Daphne Duncan, general manager of RoadChef at the Rownham motorway service area (MSA) on the M27 near Southampton: "The majority of tea drinkers ask for ‘proper' milk, meaning fresh milk while coffee drinkers tend to choose evenly between black coffee or taking it with cream or with fresh or skimmed milk."

Customers using the Rownhams RoadChef, twice awarded the Tea Council's Best Cup of Tea on the Motorway award, are offered a choice of milk pots: Dairy Crest fresh milk, Watson & Philip's Orchard Farm UHT Cream and Country Dale skimmed milk. Fresh milk is also available from a Pergal machine: a plastic box with a tap that is kept in a small refrigerated cabinet for drawing off glasses or jugs of milk. Pergals are available as three- or five-gallon machines. Across all the 11 RoadChef MSAs, 66% of customers choose fresh milk; 15% cream; 16% UHT milk and 3% skimmed milk.

In Pavilion MSAs, only fresh milk is served in milk pots. According to Nigel Langley-Hunt, Pavilion's purchasing executive: "Semi-skimmed milk is available in self-service three-gallon Pergal machines and skimmed milk is provided on request. We would consider using fresh semi-skimmed milk in pots if it were available. No UHT products are on offer in any of our outlets."

Both Langley-Hunt and Joan Milner, Gardner Merchant's national merchandising manager, regard the Pergal as a cheaper alternative to milk pots because otherwise you pay extra for the milk pot's packaging.

But Paul Freeston, marketing director at Pritchitt Foods, the manufacturer of the Millac range of portion pots, argues that you must weigh the cost of milk pots against the limited shelf life of the Pergal product and the wastage of having to dispose of milk which is past its use-by date.

Langley-Hunt, however, agrees with Freeston's view that caterers must consider the sheer convenience of the milk pot: "The alternative to milk pots are not particularly clever; it is not very convenient or hygienic to take open stainless steel jugs to draw off the product from a machine and it can be labour-intensive."

In contrast to Pavilion's policy, all staff restaurants run by Gardner Merchant offer milk pots in a range of UHT products under the Cuisine brand.

According to Milner: "There is a marked preference for semi-skimmed milk and sales of cream pots are down by 20%. The take-up of cream is so bad that it remains on the shelf and not on display for the customer's attention. On the question of taste, we have had no complaints about UHT products. It's clear to us that customers have got accustomed to the distinctive taste of UHT milk."

UHT taste

At the Café Royal in Nottingham, where customers are offered Countrywide's Country Range UHT Milk and UHT cream, senior assistant manager Alex McHardy can't recall any complaints about the UHT taste. "Occasionally people will ask for proper milk in their tea but otherwise they tend to use milk in tea and cream in coffee.

"We use Country Range because we have found that they are the cheapest and the best. Some UHT brands deteriorate before the sell-by date and you don't know until the customer puts it in the tea or coffee."

But at Pritchitt Foods, Freeston maintains that many people dislike the taste of UHT products and suggests that caterers consider alternatives such as Pritchitt's formulated milk products, Millac Maid and Half-Fat Millac Maid portions, or for that matter Premier Beverages' Country Dale range.

Freeston claims that results from independent taste panels prove that Millac Maid is indistinguishable from fresh milk and has a comparable shelf life to a UHT product of roughly five months. On the price comparison between the two types Freeston says: "It's a volatile market and based on volumes our brands will prove to be very competitive with the UHT products. Our prices will not erode profit margins."

Rounding out his case for offering the customer a range of premium products, Freeston argues that caterers will offer customers the choice of a sweetener or sugar, decaffeinated coffee or standard coffee but in many instances only full-fat milk: "In general, caterers are putting a lot of effort into raising the quality of coffee and tea so why don't they raise the quality of the milk portion packs?"