Care Home CPU
A major London based CPU that provides pre-prepared food to the healthcare sector.
How Metcalfe helped
Problem
The CPU was becoming overwhelmed with veg prep work due to the healthcare sector labour shortages.
Additionally, demand increased to supply more hospitals with prepared diced food at IDDSI level 5 (8mm cube) for paediatric patients.
The IDDSI guidance recommends up to 15mm x 15mm (1.5cm) dice for adults. Other machine manufacturers do not offer a 15mm dice grid. Crucially they also don’t take the last blade to the very edge, therefore allowing food to fall through the outermost edge.
Because of the choking hazard, the product then must be sorted, sampled and removed by hand, either by the Chef or the Central Production Kitchen. It’s a common, labour-intensive issue. Whilst a smaller dice could be produced by using a 12mm grid, if cutting smaller than the recommended 15mm dice this will reduce the ability to chew which will be against the guidance of the speech and language therapist (SALT).
Solution
HALLDE RG-350 with a 15mm dice grid.
HALLDE are the only manufacturer that have a 15mm dice grid and as with all their other dice grids the blades are set to the outermost radius thereby ensuring nothing larger than 15mm x 15mm is produced.
Result
Confidence in the HALLDE result removed the need for the costly and time-consuming hand sorting process, whilst preventing food wastage.