Welcome break tries to improve motorway food

Motorway service station operator Welcome Break has built a training kitchen at its Membury site on the M4 in Wiltshire, at a cost of £150,000.

The kitchen, with adjoining training, lecture and meeting rooms, will enable food samples to be checked and dishes to be improved.

The company will use it to develop new menu ideas and demonstrate new products and equipment to the 4,000 restaurant and catering staff working in its 23 service stations.

Gavin Clark, director of food, said: "It highlights our commitment to serving good-quality food in all our service stations."

News that Welcome Break has spent thousands of pounds on a training kitchen in order to improve the standard of the meals it serves comes just a week after service areas in the UK were once again criticised for the poor quality of their food.

In a survey of 74 service areas across Europe, carried out by the AA and other European motoring organisations, UK areas were praised for the range of food on offer but criticised for its poor appearance and quality. They were also said to be expensive.

The best food was found in France, Italy and Spain, but these countries performed badly in hygiene tests.

UK service areas were placed eighth among nine countries.

German service areas were rated the best overall, followed by those in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Areas considered by the judges included food, safety, internal layout, shops and sign-posting.

AA policy director John Dawson said: "UK motorway service areas do a reasonable job of providing basic services for travellers but, benchmarked against most of Europe, they could do much better."

He added that planning restrictions and "sky-high" development costs were partly to blame, with the result that customers "end up paying through the till."

by Angela Frewin and David Shrimpton