Food To Go Dynamic Purchasing System Offers Imaginative New Retail Catering Offer to Visitors and Presents Excellent Savings to Trusts

In this article, we look at how our Food To Go Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is offering patients and visitors new exciting product ranges, from a range of different suppliers, with great savings being driven into trusts. These enhanced catering options open up a new and innovative approach to the retail offer for visitors within hospitals.

Last month, in April, we gave you an overview of the mechanics of a DPS and a supplier update for the Fresh Food DPS. This month, for May, we are looking at the Food To Go DPS. The purpose of this agreement is to develop non-framework spend, and the reopening of competition is being used to generate extensive savings for trusts.

The DPS will be the main procurement route for NHS trusts’ Food To Go requirements, having launched on 20 September 2023. The first competitive exercise for the DPS was run in March 2024, we are now looking at the success of it so far.

The DPS is divided into two categories of products, and supplier applicants may apply to be included on either or both of the product categories, which we go into detail about below.

The applicants will only be accepted to categories they have applied for if they pass all mandatory criteria within the DPS award process.

The Food To Go DPS categories are Patient Feeding Solutions for the ward for patients, covering everything from sandwiches and salads to snack pots, and the Café Retail Feeding Concepts, which includes the same lunch and snack options for patients as well as staff, in the way of sandwiches, salads and wraps, but now looks to expand its range further into new exciting product offers later on this year, which we will explore within this article.

The DPS also includes branded equipment linked to specific food (brands), such as fridges, freezers, ice cream machines and any other equipment that suppliers provide with their products.

The Food To Go DPS has been a huge success story in terms of onboarding suppliers that are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the supplier base currently being 27 in total, 26 of which are SMEs. These SMEs mean the trusts are offered a broader range of products, and their individual needs can be met more readily, and the DPS allows the suppliers to join at any time.

The DPS also enables trusts to increase the proportion of their procurement spend that goes to SMEs, thereby supporting their Green Plans. SMEs are using more and more sustainably sourced products, reducing food miles and carbon emissions, as well as creating more local jobs, which all helps towards delivering a net zero NHS.  

Thirteen contracts have been awarded to suppliers since the launch of the Food To Go DPS in September 2023. Five new suppliers have won contracts under the DPS, meaning a greater flexibility and choice to the trusts.

The Food To Go DPS is now expanding into new product ranges such as cakes, chilled and frozen drinks, other grab and go foods, and will in the summer be expanding into offers of street food, ice cream and other exciting options. 

The Food to Go DPS is a new and innovative way to build a supply base in an ever-changing market. We are launching new exciting Food to Go concepts, such as street food, pizza and ice cream within our Café Concepts offer. The DPS delivers extensive savings across one hundred trusts in England. A collaborative approach to the NHS has helped us to ensure further efficiencies and maximise savings.

Megan Feek, Category Buyer for Food To Go, NHS Supply Chain: Food

A number of the suppliers on the Food To Go DPS are specifically catering to these areas. For example, we are looking to implement an ice cream supplier in June 2025, who are a company who started making the product in a small barn in Hampshire, making ice cream with the traditional batch method. There are also several cake and baking good suppliers across the country ready to be awarded business within trusts across England.

Watch out for more news on these new products very soon. 

See our Useful Links section for more information about our Food To Go DPS.

Contact your local Food Account Manager confirming your trust name, location and job title with your full contact details.