Benefits & Award Criteria
Benefits of the Golden Apple Award
What our award can give you:
- Public recognition for achieving the award including a place on
the council's website and entry into local information guides
- Association with the Health Improvement and Environmental
Health Team at the council
- An enhanced image as a responsible health conscious
business
- The ability to satisfy growing demand for healthier
choices
- Improved knowledge of healthier food and catering practices
within the catering team
What our award can give your customers:
- The ability to identify which foods make a healthy choice
- More control over the food they eat
- The knowledge that they will be able to choose healthy food at
your premises
- Improved customer satisfaction
What do I need to do to gain this award?
To achieve a GAA there are certain requirements and conditions
that must be met. This also involves a self-assessment process,
which is followed up by an assessment visit from a Team member.
Award Criteria
The award criteria are based on the general principles of a
healthy balanced diet and nutritional requirements of young
children to encourage and support healthier eating and legal
standards of food hygiene.
In particular this focuses on:
- Making the food available for children generally healthier by
improving raw materials and how they are prepared, therefore having
an impact on all children regardless of their food choice.
- Clearly identifying healthier food choices, so making it easier
for children to make the healthier choice if they want
to.
- Promoting and practicing high standards of food hygiene
To enable you to do this you will need to be committed to
ensuring the following conditions are met. This is likely to
involve you changing some of your current catering practices. You
will need to:
- Minimise fat and oil levels in the food you serve, in
particular saturated fat
- Minimise salt levels the food you serve
- Minimise levels of sugar in the food you serve
- Make fruit and vegetables clearly available
- Make starchy foods the main part of most meals
- Provide healthy and nutritious food for children, in places
where children are served
- Aim to ensure around 50% of the food served can be labelled as
healthy, i.e. foods are prepared using both healthier ingredients
and cooking methods
The premise must comply with all legal requirements for food
hygiene, namely, (EC) Regulation 852/2004 and The Food Hygiene
(England) (No 2) Regulations 2005 including having in use a fully
documented food safety management system.
You must provide evidence that the business promotes and
supports healthier eating for children.
How to apply for this Award
To apply for this award scheme contact the Health Improvement
Team using the details on the left.
