The five-year contract will see Apetito lead the food operations across the Trust’s Hillingdon and Mount Vernon hospitals in west London.
The hospitals' catering was previously provided by Anglia Crown.
The new offering will include Apetito’s plated meal solution, which it says enhances the catering system to one of “ease and practicality”.
The method involves loading meals onto individual patient trays and inserting them into a ‘compactserv’ trolley containing separate cooking and cooling compartments, allowing hot meals to be cooked from frozen, whilst food such as sandwiches and desserts are kept cool on the other side of the tray.
Apetito says once this process is complete, the trolley can be wheeled onto the ward where trays are simply lifted out and handed to patients as a complete meal.
Members of the apetitio healthcare team will assist hospital staff in implementing the new system, which is due to be introduced on 1 November.
Rosemarie Hoyle, divisional manager at apetito Healthcare, said: “We’re delighted that the Hillingdon Trust has chosen to work with us and we look forward to working together to provide patients with quality, nutritious meals.
"From our collaboration with Socamel [compactserv designers], we are able to offer an advanced catering system not seen before in the UK. We are extremely proud of this and believe it will help drive the Trust to flagship status within the NHS.”
As part of the tender, a 'bake off' styled tasting event took place in June, where each of the shortlisted tenderers cooked and served a range of their patient meals to 60 Trust staff and patient representatives, who then scored them on taste, texture and presentation.
Anne Byrne, facilities manager for the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We were particularly impressed with apetito's range and the taste of their meals, as well as their commercial offer, and believe they can further enhance our already well-recognised, high-quality patient meal services at the Trust.
“A key part of the tender was around sustainability and respecting the environment, and apetito’s record on sustainability was a major factor in their success in winning the contract.”