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HC-One and EF-group renew longstanding partnership to enhance the lives of residents by signing five-year contract

HC-One, the UK’s leading social care provider, operating c.300 care homes and providing a wide range of care and support services to residents are thrilled to announce the renewal of its longstanding partnership with leading procurement and menu management specialists, EF-group, by signing a new five-year contract to continue enhancing the lives of residents.

Strengthening Partnerships with Local Suppliers

Establishing partnerships with local suppliers can provide significant strategic advantages for catering businesses. By sourcing food, beverages, materials and services locally, companies can reduce lead times, improve supply chain reliability, and increase responsiveness to market changes.

How EF-group can help caterers in the care and senior living sector

When EF-group launched in 2004, we set out to deliver value, efficiency and quality to our partners and clients in everything we do. Over the previous two decades, we’ve earned our spot as industry leaders amongst suppliers and caterers alike for our innovative procurement and menu management solutions tailored to the care sector.

Holistic approach to special diets

Food service and hospitality operators have (by and large) engaged fully with allergens, intolerances and coeliac disease and have made huge strides in ensuring their systems and procedures meet with both the regulations and with good customer service.

Time to look again at ‘May Contain’.

Allergen Accreditation does take issue with ‘may contain,’ ‘made in a factory with’ and other PAL (Precautionary Allergen Labelling) excuses. To become accredited involves full allergen disclosure and there is a rigid process involved that results in no use of ‘May Contain’ terminology for all foods and drinks prepared on site.

Best Practices to Ensure Hydration and Nutrition in Care

Working so closely with our care clients allows us to understand just how vital providing good hydration and nutritious food is in care settings, and with over three million people at risk of malnutrition in the UK, the importance of hydration and nutrition in care is crucial.

Patterns and Prevalence of Adult Food Allergy

Whilst food service and those involved in all aspects of food wholesale and retail have elevated their allergen management systems, improved their communications and gone beyond to cater for special dietary needs it is worth remembering that food hypersensitive customers do exist.