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Healthier Catering Commitment criteria

Your business must meet a minimum of seven essential criteria. These include conditions on the use of fats, oils and salt, and the availability of lower sugar drinks and snacks, fruit and vegetables. 

Criteria

Essential criteria that you must meet:

  • Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat or oil is used when cooking food
  • Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat or oil is used when preparing food
  • Excess fat is drained from food before serving
  • The oil is properly maintained
  • Reduced sugar/diet drinks and/or unsweetened fruit juice are available and displayed
  • Smaller portions are available (½ to ⅓) if requested
  • Salt is only available centrally

Non essential criteria:

  • Visible fat is removed from meat before cooking
  • Food isn’t fried where possible
  • Cooking oil is heated to the optimum temperature
  • Thick cut chips are served Semi skimmed or skimmed milk is used in drinks Lower fat sauces etc are used & customers add their own 
  • Lower fat sandwich fillings are available
  • Healthier eating is promoted by staff
  • Customers add their own salt after cooking
  • Salt isn’t used in cooking water
  • Lower salt sauces are available
  • Lower sugar snacks are available
  • Drinking tap water is always available
  • Vegetables or salad is always available as a side
  • Fruit is available and displayed
  • Healthy starchy alternatives to chips are available
  • Wholegrain varieties of carbohydrates are available
  • Healthier children’s menu options are available

The food officer may ask for evidence to support the criteria.

Which may involve:

  • assessing the food business menu
  • checking how the food is prepared

We will tell you if you have successfully met the criteria of the scheme at the end of the visit. If there are some criteria that your business has not met, we will give you feedback with details of areas to improve on. We may visit you again to check you are meeting these. 

If you're successful, you’ll get a Healthier Catering Commitment certificate and a door sticker which you may display. Your business will be shown as meeting the standard on our website.

If you are unhappy with the result of your assessment, you can discuss it with us.  

Once you've met the criteria

If standards slip in your business, either in food hygiene to a level below ‘broadly compliant’, or in maintaining the HCC, then the HCC approval will be withdrawn. We will remove any materials that use the logo, including the sticker and certificate.

You will be reassessed for the HCC each time the routine food hygiene inspection is carried out. It’s valid for a maximum of two years), although we may check it’s being maintained at other times when we visit your business. 

If there are any major changes to your menu or cooking methods, you will need to let us know. We may wish to discuss them with you. If your business changes hands, the new owner must reapply for the HCC. 

The future 

If you achieve the award, we very much hope that you will want to build on your success and include some of the other commitments. If you need extra support or advice, please contact us.

From time to time  the scheme may add, delete or amend criteria to take account of changing nutritional advice. The commitments are intended to develop over time.

For information or if you have questions about the HCC, please contact us at foodsafety@camden.gov.uk