University of Chester
Whites Dining
Parkgate Road
Chester
Cheshire
CH1 4BJ
Client ID Number: AA/00000290
Time flies and it is 3 years since the catering team at The University of Chester achieved membership of The Allergen Accreditation Scheme. The team recently applied for a further 3 years and Jacqui McPeake (Senior Allergen Advisor-Allergen Accreditation) arranged an on-site audit recently.
The application form had been completed and sent in advance for review and Jacqui met with Paula Martindale -Senior Operations manager for Hospitality & Residential Services. Paula was very keen to ensure that the team were providing a good service and were able to provide safe food choices for students who have allergies, intolerances, or coeliac disease. The University has Residential accommodation and offers catered packages for students. Once a student has declared that they have allergies, the senior team ensure that they are on duty during the first couple of weeks of a new academic year. During this time, they will meet with the new students and discuss which foods they need to avoid, the severity of their allergy or intolerance and also ask which foods they dislike. When a student is living away from home, it is important that the student enjoys their meals!
Richard Williams who is the 2nd Head Chef has worked at the University for 2 years also joined the discussion and to provide valuable information about how the team manages food allergens within the department. Jackie Rowlands who has worked at The University for 33 years also joined our audit meeting.
The University Catering Team have around 40 catering assistants and 10 chefs to provide meals for students, staff, visitors, VIP dinners, conferences, and internal hospitality provision. There are around 4,000 students and 160 of these are on a catered meal package and 5 of these have a diagnosed food allergy. One of the students has multiple allergies including onion, milk, garlic, and sulphites. The team know the student well and always ensure there is a suitable meal for him.
The team are members of TUCO and therefore have a robust procurement process with recommended suppliers and approved products. Chester use the ProcureWizard system which has all the recipe data and ingredient and allergen information uploaded onto the system. Communication from suppliers to the team members is very good and they are notified of any product changes and changes to allergen information. The team do not accept any substitute products unless it is absolutely necessary, and they have been informed beforehand.
The storage areas are well organised with a separate freezer for gluten free items. There is also an oven which is used for allergen free menu items only. A separate area has been designated for allergen free preparation.
The team take Food Allergen Management seriously and do their utmost to make sure the students feel comfortable when eating in the dining area. It was a pleasure to meet the team again and present the Allergen Accreditation Certificate to the team. (Congratulations!)
