Multi Temperature Distribution – Delivering Everyday Value

NHS Supply Chain: Food’s Multi Temperature Distribution (MTD) offers customers a range of everyday food products at a great price, and could form part of the solution for your trust.

Just over one year on from the launch we look at the key benefits this framework is bringing trusts across England and how it could help you with your food procurement needs.

The improved MTD framework started in March 2024 and is provided by Bidfood, who successfully retained the contract tender. It represented a significant change to the previous framework on offer, with enhanced benefits previously identified by customers.

Keep reading to find out how it could meet your trust’s needs.

The MTD framework is designed to provide you with a tailored range of multi temperature food products, delivered directly to individual trust sites from one direct supplier, on one delivery. The framework comprises of high volume lines-chilled, ambient and frozen products, and offers great value for money. In choosing this option, you are reducing carbon emissions as it all arrives on one delivery.

Natalie Smith, Category Buyer, NHS Supply Chain

One big change in the current framework was reducing the number of products to 494 core products, commonly used by most NHS trusts. By doing so we have been able to concentrate our efforts on the pricing of these products, and removed unnecessary product listings, and therefore cost, that simply weren’t being purchased. The MTD model uses a single food distributor, Bidfood, across a set range of products, giving us the opportunity to leverage the buying power of the NHS. Having greater buying power means we can negotiate the best possible prices for trusts. 

Our MTD framework offers a range of products with stable, national pricing, delivering value for all trusts. This can unlock savings for trusts via a cheaper, consolidated route to market, and the next best framework option after the NHS catalogue. MTD is the sister framework to our Multi Temperature Food Solutions (MTFS) framework, which offers a more extensive range of products from a wider range of suppliers. By making both available we can meet the varied needs of the NHS, balancing simplicity and choice.

Rina Smith, Category Lead, NHS Supply Chain

Natalie Smith and the team also regularly review pricing across the NHS food frameworks, enabling us to recommend the most cost-effective route to market by product line. Where the same supplier and product are used via another framework, you can even retain the same product codes – making the switching process straightforward and efficient.

MTD is the first direct agreement to offer fixed, national pricing for all trusts across England. MTFS still offers bespoke prices and solutions; this framework relaunches in August. Watch this space for more detail soon.

Having access to the know-how and resources of one of the world’s largest logistics companies through this framework supplier means we can offer unrivalled reliability when it comes to our delivery services, giving trusts peace of mind.

When this framework launched in March last year, we concentrated on a much smaller range, single sourcing through one food distributor who provides the products, keeping it simple. We streamlined this framework, driving savings for trusts, and in this way the MTD and MTFS frameworks work alongside each other. MTD is designed to give trusts the opportunity to buy products that don’t have a wide variation of specifications, at a great national price.

The more volume we can drive through these lines, the stronger our position is to negotiate lower prices. This is our non-frills, volume driven framework, giving trusts value for money for their simple day to day product purchases. Our other direct frameworks and agreements such as MTFS or Fresh Food are still available to support the more specific or bespoke requirements of trusts. This means we can provide our customers with both value for money and breadth of choice by using a blend of the right frameworks and suppliers.

Rina Smith, Category Lead, NHS Supply Chain

We recognise that NHS trusts have specific and wide-ranging needs up and down the country for specific dietary or nutritional requirements, such as gluten free, allergen free, dairy free and vegan products. The MTD product range includes options and products that represent the latest nutritional trends and innovations.

Our Dietetics Team, Lead Dietician Idrees Anwar and Nutrition Compliance Manager Pirianka Montfort, analyse the products before they are added onto the framework, and look at the nutritional values of the food and drink products. They make sure they all suit the nutritional recommendations in the ‘Independent review of NHS hospital food 2020’.

We also review the products in our Approved Product List (APL), which all trusts can have a copy of. Showing up to date pricing, products, pack sizes and codes, delisting products if they are not selling, and adding new lines that are now being requested. We really listen to our trusts feedback on what they want to see on this framework

Natalie Smith, Category Buyer, NHS Supply Chain

Product switching exercises are run in order to drive savings on this framework. We look at products side by side to check the new product proposed matches, the nutritional value of the existing one, and suggest swaps that could be made for cheaper products, whilst still ensuring quality is not compromised. We hold sampling sessions for these products to be looked at and tasted by trusts to help them make these switches.

We encourage trusts to contact their Local Food Account Manager to discuss their requirements, and details of how to do this can be found below.

When we are working with suppliers, we consider many factors. These include their environmental, sustainability and social value strategies, so that we can help trusts with their Green Plans and meeting their net-zero NHS targets. Suggestions from our buyers to suppliers include looking at packaging materials, swapping from plastic to paper for example. These conversations all form part of our supplier management work that is ongoing all year round, working to support you.

As MTD is delivered by Bidfood on a single, temperature-controlled lorry. Using this framework can reduce the number of deliveries into a trust site. Bidfood also has a robust commitment to driving ethical sourcing and sustainability, aligning to the needs of the NHS. Our buyers work closely with them to ensure the right projects undertaken and further innovation explored. For example, Bidfood were recently able to reduce plastic packaging on grated cheese by 26%, plus an additional 18% reduction in the need for shrink wrap plastic by reducing the size of the packaging. They are also working to remove all caged eggs by the end of 2025.

One year on, our Procurement Team want to leverage the framework even more. We are putting an increased focus on controlling pricing with the supplier, the product range on offer, and how we can best serve customers, reviewing their basket of goods.

We are looking at each individual product line by purchased by each customer with a more tailored approach, so we can advise trusts on what’s best to buy from the NHS Supply Chain Catalogue, from MTD and from other direct agreements.

Natalie and the team are excellent at constantly reviewing the pricing, in line with inflation and market conditions. What we want to achieve is a renewed drive in simplifying ranges and consolidating volumes, moving what can be moved across to MTD, driving even larger savings into trusts.

Rina Smith, Category Lead, NHS Supply Chain

Please reach out to your local account manager or view our food category page to see what’s on offer, or follow the simple process of getting your MTD set up.