Special Diets Directory Procurement and Consultancy Services

It can be extremely challenging, time consuming, worrying and a huge responsibility for cooks, commercial caterers and kitchen staff when asked to cater for specific dietary requirements especially if the person or child concerned has a severe, unusual or multiple allergy and/or medical condition. The time and budget required by an unprepared kitchen, catering business, restaurant or hotel etc to source and cater for each specific individual need, without specialist support can seem considerable and unprofitable.  But the bottom line is, for both health and safety reasons and to stay ahead or at least up with your game, food allergies and special dietary needs and requests have to be addressed. Therefore knowledge and attention to detail is absolutely essential.

Similarly, the sheer volume of brands and vast array of products serving the freefrom sector can be overwhelming for buyers in the retail and wholesale trades. How to choose which products will sell, which taste good, which serve more than one special dietary need. How to find those hidden gems? The time and expense required to research the freefrom, speciality and lifestyle foods market place in house, for what may intially be a low percentage of the overall turnover, can erode profit, and sometimes make the idea of stocking freefrom foods seem unviable and too much hassle.

However, the very good news is that the special dietary sector alone represents a valuable multimillion pound market just waiting to be captured! It is an undersupplied sector that is loyal and relatively recession proof, and so it's certainly worth stocking freefrom ingredients and products in every commercial kitchen, food store and deli.  And that's where we come to the rescue!

Basically, we take on the legwork and research to source products and advise both busy caterers and the retail and wholelase sectors, allowing them to continue with the smooth running of their business.  Our passion combined with our extensive database and experience within our niche together with our friendly and cost effective service will quickly and seamlessly open up a new, rapidly growing and lucrative customer base to your business.

Public sector catering is an area requiring special attention to detail; schools and hospitals for instance have especially vulnerable consumers to care and cater for with a myriad of complicated and individual particular special dietary needs and medical diets. Unfortunately it cannot be assumed that these will be catered for knowledgably and safely unless all staff involved (from the chefs to the kitchen assistants and people taking the meal orders) have the appropriate level of knowledge and training. plus access to the right alternative ingredients.

We can also assist commercial kitchens with guidance and cost effective suppliers of specific training for catering for special diets including avoiding cross contamination issues, with working with substitute ingredients as well as Food Hygiene training, risk assessment and audits. We can also source a wealth of healthy artisan or staple foods and ingredients and also ready prepared meals and solutions for any type of dietary need.

We now have a huge database of freefrom and speciality food producers, caterers, training companies and services to draw upon to help provide good quality and affordable choices for just about any kind of dietary need.

Although an estimated 1 in 3 people are on a special diet of some kind it continues to be difficult - especially for those who genuinely have no choice and whose health relies on eating food that is safe for them..and healthy and tasty! 1 in 100 people have coeliac disease for instance, and they must be offered gluten free choices or they could be extremely ill. Severe food allergies can be life threatening and cause anaphylactic shock are on the increase. They need to be taken very seriously but any business that can cater for them safely is in high demand. Many people are now wheat and/or dairy intolerant and the numbers are growing rapidly (especially dairy intolerance in children) due to the overload of these ingredients in our western diets and the highly processed versions of wheat and dairy produce we now consume. The weight loss and healthy eating sectors are of course colassal yet are not often reflected in menus.

Consultancy Sourcing & Procurement