Cambridgeshire Catering and Cleaning Services (CCS), part of Cambridgeshire County Council, provides school meals to many nursery, primary and secondary schools. We adhere to the following food policies:
Purchasing policies
CCS has rigorous purchasing controls for quality assurance and food safety to ensure that food purchased for school meals meets all quality standards.
We aim to source our foodstuffs wherever possible from local producers and manufacturers, and work closely with our suppliers to seek ways of ensuring that environmental considerations such as reducing road miles and farming methods are fully taken into account.
The current focus is particularly on sourcing meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables from within the region, and especially UK wherever possible.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's)
CCS acknowledges that many of our customers are concerned that there may be environmental issues in relation to genetically modified foods.
CCS therefore excludes the use of GMOs from school menus. No food is purchased that is above the limits set by EC legislation and is not labelled as containing GMOs. All products are regularly monitored to ensure that suppliers are complying with this policy.
Mechanically Recovered Meat (MRM)
CCS ensures that it does not purchase any products containing MRM.
Additives
CCS endeavour to select products that do not use unnecessary e-numbers. In particular, tartrazine and sunset yellow are avoided, and CCS sources products using only natural colourings where a colouring is deemed necessary.
Products containing nuts
CCS do not knowingly purchase products containing nuts or traces of nuts. However, we are unable to guarantee that all meals are nut free, as suppliers are unable to guarantee that all products have not at any stage of production come into contact with traces of nuts. Menus can be adapted for individual pupils to further ensure that there is always a low risk meal option.
Dietary options
A range of dietary requirements can be met, and CCS is ready to work closely with parents and health professionals to meet special medical needs.
For further information please click on the document below which details the procedure that CCS has in place to ensure that no child is inadvertently given food which may cause an allergic reaction.
Vegetarian options are always available, and only vegetarian cheese, oils, margarine and shortenings are used in cooking.