Comfort, Nutrition, and Innovation – Ambient Food Framework Relaunch

Ambient Food framework relaunching on 27 October

Get ready for a bold new chapter in NHS Supply Chain: Food. On 27 October, we’re unveiling the refreshed Ambient framework, bringing innovation, flexibility, and enhanced nutritional support right to your trust.

It’s not just a relaunch, it’s a reinvention of how we serve you.

We caught up with Max Mercer, Ambient Category Buyer, to dive into the standout features of this dynamic update and how it’s designed to meet your evolving purchasing needs.

With this relaunch, we’re not just meeting expectations – we’re exceeding them. And with NHS Supply Chain: Food now providing 29% of ambient food across NHS England, we’re proud to be your trusted partner in care. There are a total of 218 products on the new framework, and we hope to drive a saving of over £380,000 for the NHS annually.

Let’s make food work harder for health.

The framework will run for 2 years and ends in October 2027, with an option for an extension of an additional 2 years until 2029.

There are 13 lots on this framework, with 27 suppliers in total, including 5 that are brand new, offering a varied product range, innovative products and more choice to customers. This covers ambient foods for patient feeding on the ward, staff catering in the restaurant, and retail catering for visitors in café outlets. The new framework has large wholesalers down to Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), allowing us to cater to your individual needs as a trust, and maintaining stock availability through a diverse sized supply base.

There is a whole host of products on this framework, ranging from all the old favourites, such as canned goods, breakfast cereals, jams, cooking oils, stock, sauces, soup and custard, to condiments, sugars and sweeteners, milk powder, dairy alternatives and other groceries.

We know this is a key category for hospital caterers, and for patients, as these are household brands and products that provide home comforts for their recovery, as well as nutritional benefits in the way of high protein and fibre content. We have brand new suppliers on the new framework, providing a greater range of products – one example of these is a quick and easy curry kit that provides great taste, and a simple and tasty solution in a ready-made spice mix for trusts. In addition, we are delighted to be welcoming new products for specific nutritional needs, whether it be for patients post-operatively, or for people with dietary requirements such as coeliac disease.

We are pleased to be welcoming wholesalers for the first time on this framework, using our existing trusted relationships. Here at NHS Supply Chain: Food we only work with reputable suppliers, and now by using larger suppliers such as wholesalers for the first time on this framework, we will meet the needs of your trust better, and mitigate the risk of out of stock items on the NHS Supply Chain Catalogue.

These wholesalers ensure certain quality levels are met, as well as delivering set levels of service, and some of these wholesalers already work with NHS England, and so they understand the level of service we are aiming for on this framework. Lastly, this will give a simpler logistical process, with larger lorries being able to deliver greater volumes.

Max Mercer, Category Buyer for Ambient, NHS Supply Chain: Food

Multi-load deliveries combining various product lines will reduce the carbon footprint of our supply operation and create a more efficient supply chain.

We are also continuing to fight food waste in hospital kitchens, by addressing reduction in consumption.

We have kept our range of larger pack sizes, to mitigate the number of deliveries.

Flour, for example, has options of 1kg to 16kg bags, and bigger bags will mean less deliveries to trusts, thereby reducing carbon.

We are supporting Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) suppliers through listing their products on the Ambient framework, boosting their businesses and introducing them to the NHS.

We are also proud to say all our suppliers on this framework are UK based. The framework includes a popular custard made in Devon, showcasing our commitment to UK based suppliers. This helps us supply your trusts more easily, as we know using overseas suppliers can cause delays on shipments. It’s good to have those manufacturing sites in the UK.

Max Mercer, Category Buyer for Ambient, NHS Supply Chain: Food

There are new products entering the framework including gluten free cereals and ready to eat porridge pots. As well as this, plant-based milk alternatives like soya and almond milk are coming onto the framework, providing great options for people with dairy allergies, or people who want healthier alternatives.

We are offering National Pricing, one price for all trusts on this new framework. We review pricing regularly, and will continue to follow the market closely all the time, and request price decreases when the market price goes down.

Max Mercer, Category Buyer for Ambient, NHS Supply Chain: Food

Please reach out to your Local Food Account Manager for support in using the Ambient framework, and how you can make this switch. Our Category Buyers are also on hand to help you.