Radical Meals On Wheels System Wins NACC Innovation Award
Moffat’s Van Gen, developed with Monmouthshire County Council, offers economic solution that enhances food quality.
A radical new meals on wheels system has won the National Association of Care Catering (NACC) Achievement or Innovation Award 2011. Van Gen, which was developed by Moffat Catering Equipment, was nominated for the award by Monmouthshire County Council’s Community Meals Service. As well as being less expensive to run than conventional systems, it has improved food quality.
The Award was presented at the NACC Annual Conference Gala Dinner, on September 15th 2011. Bev Puxley, Forum Chair, commented: “The ‘Van Gen’ system, based on electrical regeneration ovens, was innovation of the highest order. The judges were impressed with its efficiency, quality of end product and ease of use. It was a clear winner.”
Pauline Batty, manager of Monmouthshire’s Community Meals Service, says she is delighted by Moffat’s success. “It’s a really well deserved recognition for their work on Van Gen,” she says. “We went to Moffat with an idea and, rather than trying to sell us a product off the shelf, they listened to what we needed and then went away and designed something that fitted our brief.
“We were after a specific solution and Van Gen provides it. It has reduced labour costs, staff really like working with the system and food quality is excellent – we’ve had very positive feedback from our customers.”
How it works:
Van Gen is a streamlined on-vehicle system that allows food to be regenerated en route. It is based around a modified Moffat electric CR oven, which runs off a specially designed inverter, plus a fridge and freezer for transporting cold desserts and frozen meals. When the van’s rear doors are opened a rack of frozen meals can be simply wheeled into the oven on a dolly.
The ovens are switched on as the driver sets out to the furthest point in the delivery run, so the meals will be perfectly regenerated and ready on arrival at the destination. The oven then holds the food at a controlled temperature throughout the rest of the run. Because it is regenerating en route, the Moffat system allows one vehicle to serve more customers over a longer period of time, saving staff time and costs.
“It’s great. It’s made the running of our meals on wheels service much smoother,” says Pauline Batty.
E & R Moffat is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of quality foodservice equipment, designing and manufacturing in-house. Based in Bonnybridge, Scotland, the company manufactures standard and bespoke servery, regeneration and storage equipment and runs a full nationwide after-sales engineering team. E & R Moffat is accredited to ISO 9001:2008 and many of the products have gas approvals and are EMC tested. For more information on E & R Moffat visit the website on www.ermoffat.co.uk