Bidfood joined, among others, contract caterers BaxterStorey and Sodexo, multinational food brands Nestle and Mars Food, and supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s in committing to the ‘Peas Please’ initiative last week.
David Jones (left), director or technical services, Bidfood, said: “As a business we’ve proactively promoted nutrition and supported our customers to achieve healthier menus across foodservice for many years, but at the same time we’ve been very much aware that vegetable consumption has been on the decline.
“We feel vegetables have certainly been overlooked in terms of their nutritional importance and their appeal - with a lot of emphasis on hiding them in smoothies, as ingredients in cakes or blending them down in recipes to make them more palatable.
“So when we first heard about the Peas Please campaign, we saw real relevance in it as a platform to drive promoting the consumption of vegetables in a fun and creative way, both with consumers, customers and our own employees.
“Ultimately it’s about getting vegetables back on the menu, ensuring there is enough choice so that we can encourage people to eat an extra portion of vegetables a day.
“Our own Healthy Living Working Group are really behind this and are taking steps to promote this in our own business too, by supplying more vegetable products to canteens in every depot, raising awareness of the health benefits of vegetables and by marketing vegetables in a really positive way by developing a range of Recipes that include more veggies.
“We’ve officially pledged our support for the Peas Please campaign this week, but we see this pledge as the start of a journey for our own teams and with like-minded customers and suppliers, which we’re excited to see unfold.”