Behind the scenes look inside Sheffield’s hospital kitchens creating 35,000 meals a week

Behind an unassuming doorway on the Northern General Hospital site lies one of Sheffield’s busiest and most vital workforces.

While most of the city wakes up to breakfast, the kitchens inside Sheffield Teaching Hospitals’ Central Production Unit (CPU) are already in full flow - preparing, packaging and dispatching meals that will soon reach patients and staff across five hospital sites.

Every week, the CPU produces more than 35,000 meals.

This caters for 2,500 patients across 80 wards, alongside 20,000 staff members who use the Trust’s dining rooms and food outlets daily.

During our visit, The Star was given a rare look inside the facility - a maze of storerooms, walk-in fridges and freezers, and kitchens filled with the sound of clattering trays and whirring mixers.

Giant vats of soup bubble on industrial hobs, chefs move swiftly between workstations, and trays of freshly prepared meals are labelled and packed for delivery.

Each item is carefully stickered so hospital staff know exactly which meal belongs where - whether it’s a gluten-free dish for a patient on a specialist diet, or a soft, bite-sized meal for someone with swallowing difficulties.

“This is a wonderful achievement,” said Emma Wilson, Head of Catering at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

“Our team produces more than 35,000 meals a week from scratch for patients and staff across our hospitals and they’re passionate about what they do.”

The team works to a demanding brief.

Alongside one standard menu for patients on a normal diet, there are 13 therapeutic, religious and cultural menus, covering everything from vegan and vegetarian options to allergen-free, higher-energy and soft-textured meals.

The CPU employs 14 skilled chefs, who prepare and cook the main dishes and therapeutic diets, supported by 60 catering assistants responsible for weighing ingredients, portioning, labelling, meal assembly and cleaning.

A specialist catering dietitian advises on nutrition and menu suitability.

Overseeing the entire process is a food production manager, backed by two quality assurance officers, a catering manager, and a supervisory team of eight.

Unlike many NHS hospitals that rely on external suppliers or frozen meals, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is one of only a handful of Trusts in England - and one of just two in the region - to run its own in-house cook-chill production facility.

More than 75 per cent of the food served is cooked from scratch using fresh ingredients, with many sourced locally.

The Trust works with regional producers for meat, dairy and bread - supporting small businesses while cutting down on food miles.

Ms Wilson added: “Our team pride themselves on being innovative using local ingredients where possible.

“They consider patients’ different needs at every stage of food planning and preparation.”

This year, two of the CPU’s chefs, Martin Spray and Chloe Millis-Poole, reached the national finals of the NHS Chef of the Year competition, after winning the regional heat.

This is the first time Sheffield Teaching Hospitals has reached a finalist stage.

The competition, run by NHS England, challenges chefs to create a low-carbon, three-course meal within a strict £6–£8 budget, including an allergen-free course and a plant-based dish.

Their success was celebrated across the Trust.

“Martin and Chloe excelled in fine-tuning what we do every day for hundreds of patients to create three amazing dishes in front of the judges. We are very proud of them both but also of our wider catering team.”

Sheffield’s CPU is now regarded as a model for other NHS Trusts.

From preparing therapeutic meals to feeding night-shift staff, the scale and efficiency of the operation demonstrate what can be achieved when catering is kept in-house.

For the patients and staff who rely on its meals every day, this unseen workforce provides a quiet but vital service - one that ensures everyone across Sheffield’s hospitals is nourished.