The award was presented to Café Zest catering manager Nik Auty-Harmer by Councillor Dave Davis, Mayor of Tonbridge & Malling.
The mayor also presented a gold healthy eating award to Sodexo for the catering services it provides at the Kimberly-Clark B&I site in West Malling. It was received by Michael Brooker, business manager and Gail Davies, sous chef, both of Sodexo.
Auty-Harmer said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this award, it’s a real achievement and recognition of the work we have done in the café to improve the number of healthy dishes we serve.
“We now have more vegetarian dishes on our menu as well as alternatives to chips such as jacket potatoes or rice. All our meal options now come with salad or vegetables and pasta sauces have ‘hidden’ vegetables in them. We have also introduced low-fat or sugar-free versions of our popular cakes and salt levels in all our recipes have been reduced.”
OJ’s, part of national contract caterer Host Management, has operated the catering facilities at Larkfield Leisure Centre for eight years, providing snacks and meals seven days a week to up to 300 customers a day.
The awards are part of the council’s scheme to help people make healthy lifestyle choices by encouraging food businesses to reduce the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fat in their dishes and increase availability and consumption of fruit and vegetables.
The scheme helps promote healthier cooking methods, correct portions and serving sizes, and assists with the promotion of healthy food options.