We had a major food testing exercise of our existing meals and of some new potential additions to the choice for patients.

Apetito, which supplies to HRI laid on a range of mains and starters for the tester panel made up of dietitians, nurses, estates, caterers and membership councillors.

On existing meals there were two versions A & B to test blind and give a verdict on a printed sheet. Verdicts ranged from excellent, good, average, poor and very poor with extra comments allowed.

A new range of meals was also introduced. These included fish curry, chicken and mushroom pasta and beef stroganoff. Our Trust is one of four nationally to test the foods for the firm alongside two in London and one in the Midlands.

Sister Sarah Bray, from Ward 15, said some of food such as macaroni cheese and ham and leek crumble deserved a thumbs up – with others she was not so keen on.

She said: “It is good be involved and to be able to find out more about the food our ward serves to our patients. It is good to have answers if they want to ask questions.”

Membership councillor George Richardson, said: “It has all been pretty good. There’s only one I didn’t like. I would eat the rest gladly”.

A spokesman for Apetito, Chris Cooper, said: “Regarding how the findings will be used. We have to collate all the information from the day and from the 3 other sessions that went on in other places across the country. 

"The data will then be fed to our New Product Development team via our category manager and depending on the findings this will result in which of the dishes go no further in development and which progress to the next stage and potentially on to hospital menus for September.”