Better quality food and more choice among promised changes to military catering

Serving personnel can look forward to better quality food, new menus and a "consumer-grade experience", the Chief of Defence People has announced.

Vice Admiral Phil Hally said the Armed Forces would be introducing changes in defence catering to provide more choices for personnel. 

"We are still finalising the details with providers, but I expect to publish more detail very soon," Vice Admiral Hally wrote on social media.

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"The new policy is based on extensive work to understand what our people not only need but would like," he explained.

"It will cover four elements: improving the quality of the food itself and when it is available, providing wider selection, rolling out technology-enabled purchasing and collection, and improving dining facilities to provide a social hub throughout the day.

"New menus are being developed and I hope to announce details to service personnel in the next few weeks - including detail on menus and cost - this will be good news."

The changes are a response to recommendations made in the Haythornthwaite review, which examined service personnel's terms and conditions.

Vice Admiral Hally said that the changes would not be immediate, but would be introduced to improve the "quality, choice and value of the food itself".

He added: "I aim to share the detail in advance of rollout, giving people notice of these positive changes which will represent an investment in our people."