A HEALTHY food award has been given to Halton Hospital.

The Greater Merseyside Food Charter Award has been bestowed on six catering organisations, including two schools and three community cafes.

Modi Mwatasama, food and health programme manager for Heart of Mersey, England's largest coronary heart disease prevention programme, presented the prestigious accolade. She said: "I am delighted to be awarding these certificates to the first food charter accredited organisations."

Lynn Jones, catering manager at Halton Hospital, said: "Healthy food has such a high profile in the media at the moment and I think it is great to play some part in it.

"Having staff trained to a high standard helps to provide an excellent service."

The charter recognises the need to offer people a choice when eating away from home. This can be anything from skimmed milk in your latte in a city centre caf to healthy school dinners or having a choice of salads and low calorie snacks in the office canteen.

Any food provider from a community caf to a five star hotel can apply for assessment.

Once the criteria are met, they will be able to display the certificate.

bjordan@worldgroup.co.uk