Nutritics links directly into the Brakes product catalogue, and gives our chefs the ability to add their sites favourite dishes, or create new ones. Using a simple drag and drop feature, chefs can add any ingredient they want, and instantly see things like fats, proteins, salt levels or allergens such as wheat.
Chefs will also be able to swap out ingredients once a recipe has been created to fortify a recipe, make it healthier or even turn it into a halal dish. Once created, these recipes can then be shared with all other Cygnet chefs.
Budgeting is also a huge part of this tool. Every single ingredient has a price linked to our contracted agreement with Brakes. This allows chefs to see the true cost of each recipe they are creating, and the exact cost per portion / per person. This further empowers our chefs to control budget, and potentially swap out higher priced ingredients for lower cost alternatives.
In order to successfully roll this out across our sites, we have also engaged with a number of Cygnet chefs to create over 120 recipes within the Nutritics Platform.
The Procurement team recently organised a working session at our head office. The day was spent working with our chefs to understand the needs and requirements of our catering teams. We then moved on to Nutritics training with the Brakes Head Development Chef and finished up with some menu planning. This also gave our chefs the opportunity to meet our new Brakes account management team, and arrange site visits.
Titilayo Jackson, Chef at Cygnet Churchill said, “I like the fact that the Nutritics tool gives an in-depth nutrition analysis, this will help ensure consistency and accuracy in our recipes. This system also provides all allergen information, which is extremely useful.
“What excites me the most is the fact that we’ll easily be able to adjust the ingredients or measurements in our recipes and this can then be used as standard recipes across all Cygnet sites. We’ll also have the ability to share our recipes so we’ll be learning from each other!”
Raf Hamaizia, Expert by Experience Lead, said, “The Nutritics tool will enable our staff to manage dietary requirements in a safe and responsive manner based upon the individual needs of service users and residents. What I like the most about the tool from a lived experience perspective, is the ability to share recipes which gives rise for the opportunity to share best practice from different sites, many of which are co-produced with People’s Councils and based on feedback.”
Marc Tough, Procurement Manager, said, “The day was a huge success, and everyone was able to clearly see the benefits in Cygnet using this system. It wasn’t just the Brakes food goodies that got us excited, this system has so much to offer our sites and the people we look after. The ability to create a nutritionally balanced recipe, tailor dishes to specific service user needs, swap out ingredients, identify allergens, and manage budgets down to a cost per portion.
“Now that this is up and running, we intend to keep working with our stakeholder group to expand the growing recipe bank. We will then begin to bring in more sites and train our chefs on how to use the system. This is a genuinely exciting project, and I look forward to bringing you further updates.”
The Nutritics tool is being piloting in our health & social care sites with plan to roll out to all services using Brakes in 2022.