We love local

At Derbyshire Catering service, we take pride in using high quality produce to create our meals.

Overall, 72% of all raw ingredients used in our meals are sourced in the U.K (that’s 13% higher than the national average) and we have strict criteria for all of our ingredients.

For example:

all meat served is British and farm assured, meaning it can be traced back to the farm
all eggs are British Lion stamped
no fish that is served is on the Marine Conservation Society fish to avoid list

We love cooking

With great food comes great responsibility and our catering teams are up to the challenge.

All our meals, sandwiches and desserts are made fresh on site or at a local hub kitchen every day by our talented teams. We are very proud of our cooks, some of whom have won awards for their skills in national competitions.

Many of our catering staff members have worked with us for over a decade. Our knowledgeable health and safety team ensure that all team members are trained to create tasty, nutritional, and safe meals for pupils to enjoy.

We are lucky to have passionate and caring catering teams who only want the best for pupils.

Good to know

Food is fuel so we leave out or reduce certain ingredients to support the health of all pupils.

For example:

No genetically modified ingredients are ever used in our meals
Our meals are free from undesirable additives and artificial trans fats
We use herbs to season our meals instead of salt
We have reduced the sugar in our desserts by 33%
We bake or steam dishes to lock in nutrients

The School Food Standards

The school food standards are intended to help children develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day. For DCS we believe that is it an important to cook food that looks good and tastes delicious, while adhering to the standards.

As part of the school food standards, it is important to provide a wide range of foods across the week. Variety is key, whether it is different fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses or types of meat and fish.