With UK troops deployed across the world from Afghanistan to Africa, supplying food to the armed forces is a complex business. But the rewards can be rich, discovers Paul Golden
A 4,000-calorie curry packed full of sugar, salt and fat? It'd be enough to make a nutritionist boil with rage.
If it were available in Tesco or Asda. But you won't find this sort of meal in your local supermarket. You'll find it on the front line in Afghanistan. This is what constitutes a well-balanced nutritious meal for the nation's troops in the theatre of war.
We're not talking the sort of nosh they might buy at the base camp store, but the stuff they are served in the canteen or their rations high energy food that will keep them going. As they say, an army marches on its stomach.
And despite the fact the government is cutting military spend by 8% or £2.9bn over the next four years, an MoD supply contract is very much still worth fighting for. Just ask Vestey Foods UK. Last month the biggest food supplier to the British military signed up for a three-year contract, worth £25m a year. So what does it take to win a piece of the action?
The logistics alone require military precision. No fewer than three million ration packs are produced for British troops each year with about 1,500 ambient, fresh, chilled and frozen products shipped regularly to more than 1,000 locations in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
It therefore takes some very specific capabilities to become a supplier to the British military. "Surety of supply, quality assurance and value for money," are just three of the key attributes that the military looks for, according to Captain Jeremy Rigby, who oversees the MoD's Defence Food Service (DFS) team. Potential suppliers also have to meet rigorous international food safety and quality assurance standards and undergo constant monitoring.
Shelf life is everything. Ration packs must last 18 months, meat and fish are purchased frozen to lock in nutritional values for longer periods and the MoD specifies "unripe bananas and tomatoes to allow them additional time during transit to ripen", says Rigby.
The long shelf life places huge pressure on suppliers, says Purple Foodservice Solutions MD Paul Dickinson. Purple, a consortium of DBC Foodservice, Supreme Foodservice Solutions and Vestey Foods UK, looks after the MoD's worldwide food supply and operational rations contract, with Vestey's special contracts division tasked with providing 10-man and 24-hour (one-man-for-one-day) packs.
The 10-man packs contain 130 different products there is also a patrol pack designed for sustaining troops for 10 to 12 hours between breakfast and their evening meal. The DFS provides Purple with a list of between 1,200 and 1,500 items and some very specific requirements, which include boneless meat. "I don't want to pay to move bone around the world, so we have to specify how we want our meat supplied," says Captain Rigby.
Packs cater for certain dietary and religious requirements, but food intolerance is another matter. "Food allergies are a major issue in the commercial catering world, but there are conditions people cannot take into the armed forces, such as coeliac disease," he says bluntly.
While the packs contain everyday products such as curries, soups and stews, their creation is anything but conventional. "The pouches have to hit certain nutritional targets in terms of salt, fat and sugar," says Sinead Corbett, head of end user and ingredient sales at Premier Foods, which supplies ration pack items to Vestey. "The products have to be bespoke you can't just walk into Tesco and find a lamb curry with 4,000 calories in it."
Corbett's colleague James Arnold, the company's head of catering marketing, says it has invested vast sums of money in developing the right sort of products. "You couldn't walk around Afghanistan with Mr Kipling or any other pastry-based product in your rucksack because it would disintegrate," he explains.
The challenge is to conjure up flavoursome food that can survive in the most intense environments while ticking all the other boxes shelf life, quality, etc. Variety is also crucial. Food plays a vital role in maintaining morale so 'menu fatigue' prolonged exposure to the same old ration packs has to be avoided at all costs.
For Rigby, another priority is to make sure tasty, fresh food is available back at the camp. About 85% of meals eaten by troops in Afghanistan are cooked by chefs in mess tents from a selection of about 1,000 ingredients.
UK suppliers provide the majority of these and local producers also play an important role through the supply of fresh items, although Captain Rigby says that the MoD must be careful not to create an artificial market in locations where it might not maintain a long-term presence.
"This is a particular concern in Afghanistan, where the requirement is less predictable," he says.
Wherever products are being sourced from, the military expects continuity and consistency, adds David Burns, MD of Fresh Direct, which supplies the armed forces with about £7m worth of fruit and veg a year.
"Decisions aren't made with the short term in mind," he says. "Suppliers are seen more as partners than in any other public sector area I've been involved with." However, he adds, the rewards are not what they were. "Volumes in the UK have declined as the MoD has introduced broader choice with the introduction of 'pay as you dine' schemes managed by third-party contract caterers, which reduce direct spend with nominated suppliers," he explains.
The pickings may not be as rich in the wake of such strategic changes and the government's austerity measures, but as Captain Rigby points out, while the percentage of troops fed by DFS has fallen to 35%, contract caterers still have to purchase food commodities to feed the other 65%.
The other factor to bear in mind is that although the withdrawal of British troops from Sangin may be followed as early as next year by a wider withdrawal from Afghanistan, there will always be another war zone to take its place and soldiers that need feeding.
Top five MoD food suppliers
£25m Vestey Foods (ration packs)
£7m Fresh Direct (fruit & veg)
£4m Tulip (pork)
£1.8m Premier Foods (tinned food, soup)
£1.3m Dairy Crest (dairy products)
A 4,000-calorie curry packed full of sugar, salt and fat? It'd be enough to make a nutritionist boil with rage.
If it were available in Tesco or Asda. But you won't find this sort of meal in your local supermarket. You'll find it on the front line in Afghanistan. This is what constitutes a well-balanced nutritious meal for the nation's troops in the theatre of war.
We're not talking the sort of nosh they might buy at the base camp store, but the stuff they are served in the canteen or their rations high energy food that will keep them going. As they say, an army marches on its stomach.
And despite the fact the government is cutting military spend by 8% or £2.9bn over the next four years, an MoD supply contract is very much still worth fighting for. Just ask Vestey Foods UK. Last month the biggest food supplier to the British military signed up for a three-year contract, worth £25m a year. So what does it take to win a piece of the action?
The logistics alone require military precision. No fewer than three million ration packs are produced for British troops each year with about 1,500 ambient, fresh, chilled and frozen products shipped regularly to more than 1,000 locations in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
It therefore takes some very specific capabilities to become a supplier to the British military. "Surety of supply, quality assurance and value for money," are just three of the key attributes that the military looks for, according to Captain Jeremy Rigby, who oversees the MoD's Defence Food Service (DFS) team. Potential suppliers also have to meet rigorous international food safety and quality assurance standards and undergo constant monitoring.
Shelf life is everything. Ration packs must last 18 months, meat and fish are purchased frozen to lock in nutritional values for longer periods and the MoD specifies "unripe bananas and tomatoes to allow them additional time during transit to ripen", says Rigby.
The long shelf life places huge pressure on suppliers, says Purple Foodservice Solutions MD Paul Dickinson. Purple, a consortium of DBC Foodservice, Supreme Foodservice Solutions and Vestey Foods UK, looks after the MoD's worldwide food supply and operational rations contract, with Vestey's special contracts division tasked with providing 10-man and 24-hour (one-man-for-one-day) packs.
The 10-man packs contain 130 different products there is also a patrol pack designed for sustaining troops for 10 to 12 hours between breakfast and their evening meal. The DFS provides Purple with a list of between 1,200 and 1,500 items and some very specific requirements, which include boneless meat. "I don't want to pay to move bone around the world, so we have to specify how we want our meat supplied," says Captain Rigby.
Packs cater for certain dietary and religious requirements, but food intolerance is another matter. "Food allergies are a major issue in the commercial catering world, but there are conditions people cannot take into the armed forces, such as coeliac disease," he says bluntly.
While the packs contain everyday products such as curries, soups and stews, their creation is anything but conventional. "The pouches have to hit certain nutritional targets in terms of salt, fat and sugar," says Sinead Corbett, head of end user and ingredient sales at Premier Foods, which supplies ration pack items to Vestey. "The products have to be bespoke you can't just walk into Tesco and find a lamb curry with 4,000 calories in it."
Corbett's colleague James Arnold, the company's head of catering marketing, says it has invested vast sums of money in developing the right sort of products. "You couldn't walk around Afghanistan with Mr Kipling or any other pastry-based product in your rucksack because it would disintegrate," he explains.
The challenge is to conjure up flavoursome food that can survive in the most intense environments while ticking all the other boxes shelf life, quality, etc. Variety is also crucial. Food plays a vital role in maintaining morale so 'menu fatigue' prolonged exposure to the same old ration packs has to be avoided at all costs.
For Rigby, another priority is to make sure tasty, fresh food is available back at the camp. About 85% of meals eaten by troops in Afghanistan are cooked by chefs in mess tents from a selection of about 1,000 ingredients.
UK suppliers provide the majority of these and local producers also play an important role through the supply of fresh items, although Captain Rigby says that the MoD must be careful not to create an artificial market in locations where it might not maintain a long-term presence.
"This is a particular concern in Afghanistan, where the requirement is less predictable," he says.
Wherever products are being sourced from, the military expects continuity and consistency, adds David Burns, MD of Fresh Direct, which supplies the armed forces with about £7m worth of fruit and veg a year.
"Decisions aren't made with the short term in mind," he says. "Suppliers are seen more as partners than in any other public sector area I've been involved with." However, he adds, the rewards are not what they were. "Volumes in the UK have declined as the MoD has introduced broader choice with the introduction of 'pay as you dine' schemes managed by third-party contract caterers, which reduce direct spend with nominated suppliers," he explains.
The pickings may not be as rich in the wake of such strategic changes and the government's austerity measures, but as Captain Rigby points out, while the percentage of troops fed by DFS has fallen to 35%, contract caterers still have to purchase food commodities to feed the other 65%.
The other factor to bear in mind is that although the withdrawal of British troops from Sangin may be followed as early as next year by a wider withdrawal from Afghanistan, there will always be another war zone to take its place and soldiers that need feeding.
Top five MoD food suppliers
£25m Vestey Foods (ration packs)
£7m Fresh Direct (fruit & veg)
£4m Tulip (pork)
£1.8m Premier Foods (tinned food, soup)
£1.3m Dairy Crest (dairy products)
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