Food tasting session for home care frozen meals 2/2/13
Local produce could be on the menu under a proposed frozen meal service which the
Comhairle aims to introduce to replace home helps cooking for the elderly.
Similar plans were not progressed after a huge outcry in 2007. Pensioners complained
about the lack of choice and unsuitability of the menus.
However, the aim to make drastic savings in the requirement to provide a cooked meal
for frail pensioners receiving personal care has never been off the table.
Improvements in delivered frozen meals-at-home services across Scotland has led the
council to look at how it could introduce it in the Western Isles.
Now, island cooks using local and seasonal ingredients such as meat, fish and vegetables
for some meals may make the changes more palatable.
Councillors are being asked to consider the scheme. The Comhairle said that councillors
are to have a taste test and tuck into some sample meals a week Tuesday before any
decision is taken over rolling out the proposed frozen food service.
At a recent budget meeting in North Uist, the council suggested it was looking to
tender the initiative under a Scotland-wide procurement application in
It aims to save £200,000 under the planned changes by saving home helps’ time on
preparing food.
One option is to prepare food on the islands at a centralised cook-freeze unit and
send out a batch of frozen meals to eligible pensioners at regular periods- every
fortnight seems to be the council’s preferred timetable.
Another way is to work in partnership with a large facilities management service
firm with experience of this kind of specialist catering.
Around 15 local councils in Scotland use the reheated frozen meals system, mainly
because it is cheaper than a hot meals service, and about ten of them have contracted
the task to Apetito, a leading community meals food supplier.
To store the meals at home, the council would provide a small freezer to each pensioner
who could then defrost the food daily for heating in supplied microwave ovens.
The pre-ordered meals would meet required nutritional specifications for the elderly
and provide a balanced diet.