Hospital food – a receipt for sickness

To assess the current situation, Animal Aid submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to every trust and board in the UK responsible for an acute NHS hospital. It asked each if it had any processed red meat products on patient menus and whether it was able to cater for vegan patients. If it was able to cater for vegans, each body was also asked to provide an example of at least five days’ worth of vegan meal options – five days being the average duration of a hospital stay in the UK.

The most alarming aspect of the responses to these FoI requests was that of the trusts and boards that responded, all but one currently serves processed red meat to patients. This is despite the large and growing body of scientific evidence from around the world linking processed red meat – such as bacon, ham and sausages – to an increased risk of bowel cancer, the second biggest cause of cancer-related deaths in the UK. As a result of this revelation, we are urging all hospitals in the UK to remove processed red meat from patient menus and replace it with healthy plant-based meals instead. There is already a precedent for this; both tobacco and alcohol are banned from hospital premises across the UK due to their links to serious and preventable diseases. Removing processed red meat from patient menus would not only help to protect patients from the harmful effects of these products whilst in hospital care, but would also set a fantastic example in terms of healthy eating.

On the issue of plant-based meals, the response to the other part of our FoI requests on vegan provision was much more varied. In 2004, Animal Aid conducted a similar investigation into vegan hospital catering and found that, on the whole, it was pretty terrible. Fortunately, the situation today is largely much better, but there is still significant room for improvement. We assessed the FoI responses according to a list of criteria (see below) and assigned each a rating from awful to excellent, with the following results:

• Awful – 8 per cent
• Tolerable – 8 per cent
• Adequate – 26 per cent
• Good – 21 per cent
• Excellent – 37 per cent

In the case of the worst performing trusts – those rated awful or tolerable – there were obvious ways in which they could improve provision for vegans, such as removing animal products from vegan menus, ensuring better labelling, and providing a wider range of meal options. I’m glad to say that, since writing to these trusts, a number have now committed to making such improvements. But even those that achieved our higher ratings still had areas where progress could be made. For example, almost all hospitals cater for vegans via a separate menu or by providing tailored meal plans, whereas if vegan meals were available through clearly labelled standard patient menus, they would be available to many more people. This could not only help improve nutritional intake, but also help to lower catering costs at a time when NHS budgets are under increasing pressure, as plant-based meals are usually much cheaper than those containing animal products.

What can you do to help?

• Please urge your local hospital trusts or health board to stop serving processed red meat to patients in favour of healthy plant-based alternatives by taking part in our e-action.
• Order resources for our No Safe Limit campaign, calling for tighter restrictions on processed red meat. We have leaflets and campaign postcards available for door-dropping and distribution in your area, as well as copies of our No Safe Limit report, on the links between processed red meat and bowel cancer.
• Share our No Safe Limit infographic on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Contact the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, urging him to remove processed red meat from hospital menus, add health warning labels to processed red meat products and ban the sale of such products to children.
• Order FREE resources to help promote cruelty-free living in your area, including leaflets, posters and recipe booklets.