Nutrition & health

Informing and supporting our customers

General progress

We offer a range of support, information and advice to our customers through brochures, website, webcasts, serving suggestions and recipes.

To enable consumers to eat healthier food we support caterers with menu advice and encourage healthier cooking practice.

We have a team of innovative development chefs who work with our major customers to develop meals and menus, using our products. This meets the healthier cooking trends of grilled, baked and roast foods in pubs and restaurants.

Brakes nutritionists meet regularly with customers and provide a nutrition helpline for our customers both by telephone and e-mail nutrition@brake.co.uk

Our seasonal publication provides product information, innovative recipes and serving ideas for chefs and caterers.

We hold a databank of specification details, including nutrition, for more than 6000 Brakes brand products, with nutrition labelling on packaging and front of pack information on products for direct sale to consumers.

We indicate Healthier Choices products within our list and use the 5-A-Day logo on the pages of the list with fresh, frozen, canned or dried fruits and vegetables.

Commitments 2009			Progress over the last year

	1.	We will continue to ensure nutrition information and help with menu planning is available through all our communications.		1.	The winter edition of our seasonal publication featured healthier eating and the work of the FSA with caterers as the lead articles. All the healthier recipes carried nutrition information and % of Guideline daily amounts. We reviewed and reprinted our Healthy Eating brochure and our guide for school caterers.
	2.	We will continue to train our staff to equip them to help caterers plan healthier menus. Our development chefs and sales teams will continue to work with major customers, and our nutrition team will provide more menu planning advice.		2.	All new sales staff attend an academy where they are introduced to the key aspects of Brakes nutrition policies and the importance of nutrition within food service.
	3.	We will increase the number of products for which micronutrient information is available to meet the demands of school customers.		3.	We now have 800 products for which micronutrient information is available, this covers all the composite products purchased by schools.
	4.	We will work with our customers to enable them to provide nutrition and healthier eating information to consumers.		4.	Our well established database of nutrition, and expert nutrition advice will help customers to provide information to improve their menus. Over the last year we have worked closely with more than 100 customers.
	5.	We will work with the FSA and our customers to enable caterers to meet any new requirements for nutrition information on menus.		5.	We have maintained contact with the Calories On Menus programme and participated in stakeholder events and the consultation. We held a round table meeting for key customers and the FSA attended the meeting to provide information about the Calories On Menus initiative.

Forward Commitment 2010/2011			Planned Monitoring

	1.	We will re-develop the Brakes website www.brake.co.uk to include more nutrition advice, including advice leaflets and posters as downloads. We will also incorporate nutrition information into our recipes and offer healthier alternatives. We will monitor the traffic to these pages on the website.		1.	We will report on the traffic to our website, particularly to the nutrition pages.
	2.	We will continue to meet with customers to discuss healthier options and healthier catering, including a further round table type of event.		2.	We will report to the FSA on the success of this meeting.
	3.	We will use our new and updated database of specification data, including nutrition information, to provide nutritional values for caterers directly or via nutrition software suppliers. This enables caterers to provide nutrition information on their menus.		3.	We will keep the FSA informed on the volume of requests for data and help with nutrition information.
	4.	We will ensure one of the quarterly editions of our seasonal publication will have nutrition as the main feature.		4.	We will provide copies of our seasonal publication and other publications to the FSA.
	5.	We will continue to train our staff to equip them to help caterers plan healthier meals and menus.		5.	We will monitor these activities to ensure they are appropriate
	6.	We will continue to review ways to promote increased uptake of healthier products by our customers.		6.	We will monitor the sales performance of healthier products.

Informing and supporting our customers

General progress

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