The FSA and the UK’s top five contract caterers have joined forces to improve meals in the workplace.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is working with the UK’s largest caterers to improve standards of meals served in the workplace.

Companies ARAMARK, BaxterStorey, Compass Group, Elior, Sodexho, along with 3663 and Brakes, have committed to an ongoing voluntary programme to provide workers with healthier meals.

The businesses supply a combined 1.5 million meals every day – half of the daily total eaten in the workplace.

The work has been pulled together into a series of commitments, published and supplied by the FSA.

The initiative focuses on the types of products and ingredients businesses use, how dishes are prepared in the kitchen, the menu choices available and nutritional information provided to customers in work canteens.

Rosemary Hignett, Head of Nutrition at the Food Standards Agency, is calling for more companies to join the programme. She said: “Though we know people prepare and eat the majority of their meals at home, food eaten in the workplace does increasingly make up an important part of our daily diet.

“We strongly welcome the commitments these businesses have made, which will enable people to make sensible choices about their diet, no matter where they eat. We’d like to see more businesses do the same and intend to develop this work further.”

The FSA said companies will report back to the Agency on their progress on a six-monthly basis, allowing it to monitor the progress of the work.

By Natasha Piscitelli