Mid Day Meals: Procurement Process

Selection, Preparation, and Delivery Process of the ‘Mid-Day Meals’ At Food for Life, we adhere to a meticulous process to ensure that our meals uphold the highest standards of quality and nutrition, contributing to the holistic development of every child. The itinerary is meticulously planned a day in advance. We procure fresh vegetables on a daily basis, followed by a meticulous sorting process to retain the best quality.

Mid Day Meals: Cooking Process:

METHODOLOGY – The cooking in the FFLN’s Kitchen begins in the morning by following a scheduled menu. The kitchen is equipped with high tech stainless steel equipment that is sanitised before usage.

FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – Personal hygiene and cleanliness is maintained by each staff member in the kitchen following a routine hygiene chart to ensure personal hygiene before stepping into the kitchen. Daily showers, use of clean uniforms, and other protective gear are mandatory steps followed by kitchen team members. Visitors are not allowed into the kitchen with outside footwear, and have to wear masks and hair caps.

STANDARDIZATION OF NUTRITIONAL VALUE – Quality is maintained by following designed recipes that take into account the nutrition and taste. In order to maintain consistent quality, a well-structured Quality Assurance Programme and Cleansing, Cutting, and Cooking a Scheduled Menu is implemented at all stages of operations, i.e, pre-production, production and post-production of the food.

QUALITY ASSURANCE DURING PROCUREMENT OF RAW MATERIALS – Fresh vegetables are procured on a daily basis. After procurement, sorting of vegetables is done to retain the best quality. All the vegetables are cleaned with potable water and sanitised before the cutting process.

STORAGE HANDLING, PRESERVATION OF RAW MATERIALS – Cold storage is used to store ready-to-cook cut vegetables to retain freshness. In order to ensure all the raw materials are fresh, all the kitchens follow the FIFO (First In First Out) and FEFO (First Expiry First Out) methods while issuing raw material for production.

QUALITY AND SAFETY DURING COOKING – FFLN’s kitchen follows a standard process for preparing the mid-day meals. This process is charted out to ensure hygiene and quality of the cooked meal and also to adhere to the food safety standards. All the cooking equipment is sterilised using steam before the cooking process begins. The vessels used in the kitchens are made of stainless steel that is best for cooking and handling food.Personal hygiene and food safety training are provided regularly to the kitchen staff to ensure hygiene standards are met. FFLN kitchens have well trained cooks and food technicians to manage and supervise the production.

FOOD PACKING AND TRANSPORTATION – Samples from each batch of cooked food are collected, labelled and kept aside in small containers for quality checks. The cooked food is packed in steam sterilised vessels. We use transport vehicles to deliver food which is packed in stainless steel 300 grade vessels.

DELIVERY – The meals are delivered in transport vehicles on time, usually five minutes before the lunch time starts in each school.

POST DELIVERY PROCESS – In order to consistently maintain the quality of the meal, we take feedback from schools monthly conducted by our kitchen team members. The statistics are then submitted to the Program Manager for review. After reviewing, appropriate actions are taken to improve the quality and the delivery of food.

CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT PROCESS – As we aim to maintain and better our services by sustaining the quality of the mid-day meals we provide, there is a need for continual improvement. We need to advance the performance of various processes continuously so that every cycle of improvement leads to the next level of achievement.

Mid Day Meals: Cleansing
Our kitchen undergoes thorough washing and cleaning to eliminate any chance of contamination. Our cooks sanitise themselves before entering, and the staff wears protective gear. Equipped with state-of-the-art machinery made of food-grade stainless steel. Moreover, water is tested at regular intervals for various key parameters for purity. Last but not the least, all food ingredients are thoroughly washed and rinsed prior to cooking to maintain high hygiene standards.

Mid Day Meals: Cutting
Vegetables undergo meticulous cleaning before being cut into various sizes. Our kitchen is equipped with cutting-edge technology for bulk cooking, featuring heavyweight vegetable-cutting and potato-peeling machines, vegetable crushers, and a vegetable grinder.

Mid Day Meals: Cooking
All our meals are meticulously prepared under the watchful eye of a food technologist to ensure a nutritious diet for the children. Throughout the cooking process, we maintain the appropriate cooking temperature (above 90 degrees Celsius) to guarantee safety, high nutritional quality, and an extended shelf life for the food. These processes are intricately connected to ensure that every meal consistently achieves a balance of taste, nutrition, and hygiene. The unique and pure taste is attributed to our secret ingredients—love, devotion, and compassion. Adhering to principles of safe food handling, we exclusively use fresh ingredients and maintain daily cleaning routines in our kitchens, upholding consistent high hygiene standards.

Mid Day Meals: Dispatch Process
After meticulous checks for colour, temperature, appearance, flavour, and consistency, the prepared meals are sealed in stainless steel containers. These sealed containers are then loaded into delivery vehicles, ensuring timely delivery to respective schools well before lunchtime.