Health & Special Diets

"When consumed in moderation, in the appropriate portion size, all foods can fit into a healthy diet."

Menus

All our Garden Restaurant menus contain at least 1 or 2 healthy options every day. This may be a main course choice, a vegetarian option or indeed a choice on the jacket potato bar.

Soups/sauces

All our home-made soups are produced using fresh vegetables, potatoes and pulses. No milk or cream is added to them but occasionally a little butter is used in the cooking process. Sauces may contain both semi-skimmed milk and butter.

Curries

All our curries including meat, poultry and vegetarian are free from ghee (clarified butter) or any other butter/added saturated fats. Most are generally flour free and we only use low fat yogurt.

Cooking processes

During all cooking processes all our stock based sauces are skimmed of fat, particularly minced beef dishes and where possible we only purchase lean meat/poultry.

We aim for less than 10% of our main course dishes to be fried as a cooking process and more than 50% of our main course dishes to be grilled, baked, poached or braised.

We avoid use of hydrogenated cooking oils which have been associated with bad publicity regarding health threats.

What else do we offer?

• In addition to the Garden Restaurant menus we also offer a healthy salad bar with a good selection of low fat options including lean meat, half fat cottage cheese, plain salads and vegetarian choices.
• A choice of skimmed and semi skimmed milk
• Selection of fruit juices
• Fresh fruit bowl and fresh fruit salad
• Healthy eating bars
• Low fat yogurts
• Sugar free and low salt cereals
• Wholemeal rolls and bread

Allergies

• Our website menus indicate where dishes contain nuts.
• Our staff are trained to be able to advise on the contents of any dishes
• Food labels are displayed on hot and cold food counters.

Special Diets

Lacto-Ovo vegetarians are catered for on a daily basis; the salad bar has greatly enabled students to make up a dish containing only the contents that they require.

Halal dishes are served in the Garden Restaurant twice each week during term time - 1 lunch and 1 dinner. Please discuss further requirements - for example for a private function - with us.

Vegan dishes are offered regularly throughout term.

If you have a query about how a dish is prepared or you wish to know about the ingredients or if you have any question regarding our food offering, please feel free to contact the Catering Department via this website on the Contact Us page.

Further dietary requirements can be discussed with Christine James and Gary Dougan.
Special requirements do not usually present a problem - it is just a case of us finding out which foods are permitted. This is especially important where restrictions are based on medical grounds, i.e. an allergy to certain foods. Difficulties may arise with the provision of Kosher food due to the costs involved; again please discuss your requirements with us and we will do all we can to help.