Tickling the Tastebuds

Tastebuds are tingling to the delights of a new winter menu in primary schools across the county.

Several delicious home made dishes have been added to the daily specials for the 2009 winter term.

Pupils are tucking in to a healthy variety of meals including lamb and apricot meatballs - a unique product for Carmarthenshire schools which is being produced by the authority’s meat supplier Welsh Bros Foods Ltd, based in Newport. Welsh Bros have sourced the lamb from Cig Calon Cymru, a company based in Cross Hands.

And those wise enough to leave room for dessert are licking their lips to the delights of Rachel's' Organic Yoghurt, which is produced in Aberystwyth.

The new menu forms part of Carmarthenshire County Council’s commitment to provide healthy, low cost meals that have a good nutritional balance.

The council produces seasonal menus with emphasis on traditionally cooked, fresh food, with reduced additives, salt and sugar.

Locally sourced produce is used wherever possible as part of the authority’s Local Sustainable Food Strategy.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s Catering Services Manager Sandra Weigel said: “The menu has been designed to be nutritionally balanced while providing a tasty variety of dishes that children will enjoy.

“We are continually trying to introduce new appealing dishes for the children. Desserts are always more difficult to produce as they need to incorporate fruit whilst maintaining a varied menu.

“We aim to make the food not only appealing to the eye but tasty to eat while maintaining a healthy balance.

“We’ve kept a lot of the old favourites that our schools were serving 15 years ago, but over the years much of the rest of the menu has been revamped. The new menus are certainly a lot healthier - levels of salt and fat have been dramatically reduced.”

Executive board member for schools Cllr Gwynne Wooldridge said: “Carmarthenshire County Council is firmly in favour of providing the best standard of school catering possible throughout the county. Catering staff work tirelessly to ensure the quality and nutritional value of our school meals and as you can see from this year’s menu, that work is paying dividends.”