Julian Hunt on the Compass chief’s vision of a healthy direction

As the debate about the health of the nation has intensified, we have seen politicians, lobby groups and the media focus their attentions on the role played by food producers and retailers. Surprisingly, those operating in foodservice have managed to avoid much of the flak, and have largely kept their heads down. So hearing someone from the foodservice sector tackle the issue on a public platform is a novelty.
Step forward Sir Francis Mackay, chairman of the Compass Group, one of the world’s largest foodservice companies, with an annual turnover of £11bn and operations in 98 countries. Speaking at this year’s City Food Lecture, Sir Francis said the health debate was an issue common to everybody in the food chain and would be a key driver of menu change in the decades ahead.
Sir Francis highlighted growing concerns about hydrogenated fats, refined sugar and salt as well as the opposing views relating to GM foods. He said: “We will come under increasing pressure to reduce the fat content of processed foods and to provide ever more explicit information to the consumer on fat and calorie content which will come to affect restaurant menus as well as supermarket packaging.”
But with the growing power of the healthy eating lobby, and the first stirrings of litigation on obesity, Sir Francis felt the biggest challenge would be finding a way of balancing the requirements for tasty, healthy food while offering the value for money customers demanded. That pressure was most acute in the hospital and school sectors - two areas in which Compass is a leading operator around the globe.
“I realise that perceptions of hospital food are not universally favourable and, at the end of the day, if a health authority sets a low budget we cannot deliver as good a product as if the budget were higher. What we can do is maximise efficiencies - by developing central cook-chill kitchens and minimising preparation on site - so that as much money as possible can be reinvested in the quality of the ingredients.”
The schools sector faced similar pressures to find new ways of providing quality menus on tight budgets, said Mackay.
“The plain fact is that while the provision of healthy and balanced school meals is recognised as being of prime importance by every commentator, no-one actually wants to pay for them - the government, local authorities or cash-strapped schools.
“So in secondary schools in particular we have to persuade the kids themselves to make up the difference from their own disposable incomes - money that might otherwise be devoted to vital items such as mobile phones or trainers. But we also want to persuade them to spend that money on things that are actually good for them too.”
That was a massive challenge which he said Compass was meeting by developing modern café formats, launching new menu guidelines for its operations, introducing loyalty cards that encouraged healthy eating and financing school cooking instructors.
But Sir Francis stressed the good work being done by companies such as Compass could not take place in isolation. Echoing concerns raised by food companies and retailers in the past 12 months, he said the country had to grasp the fact a major education programme was needed to get consumers to eat healthily. Sir Francis said it was wrong to think this was a job for retailers or foodservice operators alone.
Neverthless, he said, every part of the food chain had a role to play in persuading parents and children to recognise the importance of sensible nutrition.
“The massive increase in childhood obesity reflects reduced exercise combined with a culture of snacking or grazing in the home rather than being physically active and eating balanced, traditional meals. Today’s parents and children have been brought up in a culture of convenience foods and takeaways and many have no idea how to prepare a meal from scratch.
“While there is no reason why prepared food cannot be perfectly nutritious and good for you, unless we reconnect the next generation with the basics of food I do not believe we can ever gain their full understanding or engagement with the subject. It is no joke when you read that children no longer connect milk with cows or believe that fish have fingers.”