New allergen-free menu introduced at Shropshire’s two acute hospitals

It will ensure that patients at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital (PRH), who have food allergies and intolerances, know which foods they can eat safely.

All of the dishes on the new allergen aware menu are ‘free from’ the 14 named allergens: nuts, mustard, fish, sesame seeds, cereals including gluten, milk, lupin, crustaceans, celery, peanuts, soya, eggs, molluscs and sulphur dioxide.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the RSH and PRH, already has several specialist menus for patients, including a soft menu for those who have difficulty swallowing and chewing.

Nick Parkin, Senior Catering Manager at SaTH, said: “The new allergen-free menu is a fantastic feat for the Trust; and it is the latest in a number of initiatives that the catering team have devised to ensure that any patient with special requirements is well catered for.

“We decided to enhance and standardise these menus across both RSH and PRH, due to the increasing number of allergen-free requests that we were receiving. Our patients with a food allergy, and those with coeliac disease, need to know which foods they can eat safely. They often find it difficult to choose suitable food and so a dedicated menu relieves any of these worries.

“We have also increased the number of dishes available on this menu from six to ten to ensure that our patients have plenty of choice, particularly those that may be in hospital for a longer period of time.”

As well as the new allergen-free menu, the Trust has introduced a number of other initiatives to improve patient safety to ensure that those with food allergies receive the correct food.

To improve communication, any patient with a food allergy is now identified through a four-step process, which includes patients wearing a red wrist band, with their allergens identifiable above their bed. A new allergy tabard has been designed to be worn by a nominated person in catering so that they are not disturbed or interrupted when dealing with any inquiries from a patient with any known food allergies.

The Trust has also implemented a new ‘allergen alert’ tray liner, designed by a catering supervisor. This goes underneath the meal on the patient’s tray to clearly identify that it is an allergen-free meal and ensure that it is served to the correct patient.