Mission: To ensure the provision of Food and Food Services to our Armed Forces for operations and training now and in the future
Vision: Complete confidence in the global provision of Food and Food Services to our Armed Forces
Responsible for the acquisition, storage, delivery of food to all 3 services worldwide except for PAYD/CRL.
DFS is part of the Commodities Cluster within the Joint Support Chain area of DE&S. The team formed up at Ensleigh in May 2006 with the merger of the Defence Catering Group and the PAYD (Pay as You Dine) Project Team. PAYD was formerly a separate project involved in the initial work leading up to contracting-out of the feeding of Armed Forces personnel when based in barracks in the UK and overseas, ie not on exercises or on operations.
DFS is expected to move to Abbey Wood in November 2011 as part of collocation of the Commodities Cluster teams with Joint Support Chain.
In essence our Business can be summed up in 3 words:
RATIONS – Nutritional food, that is value for money, sustainably and ethically procured, and provided in the right quantity, to the right place, at the right time.
RESILIENCE – Contracts, supply chains and business processes that can continue to operate despite operational, domestic and economic challenges.
REPUTATION – Confidence in our output, be it in the quality of the product or the effectiveness of the supply chain, encourages efficiencies by the end user, contributes to the overall standing of our Armed Forces and thus the strategic effect that they deliver.
DFS main responsibility is the management of the MOD Food Supply Contract (currently with Purple Foodservice Solutions (PFS)) which provides food to the UK Armed Forces at locations not supplied under PAYD. The MOD Food Supply Contract also provides food and bottled water for Armed Forces at operational locations, supplemented by the use of operational ration packs (ORP) in environments where this can not be achieved.
As part of its continuing development programme, DFS has recently introduced a new multi climate 24 Hour ORP, designed to provide a greater choice of menu to consumers and to alleviate the need for a ration pack linked to a specific climate.
Work is underway to extend the MOD Food Supply Contract to 2013 and outsource the 24 Hour ORP, along with 10 man ORP. A shorter product shelf life and more use of commercially available will provide greater variety in the ORP and the ability to adapt more readily to changing consumer tastes and different operational environments.
In addition, DFS is responsible for developing and publishing catering policy (for example on nutrition, food safety and Daily Messing Rates and allowance) and providing specialist and technical advice to armed forces caterers. It also fosters the professional development of Armed Forces Catering Personnel through involvement in catering competitions, in particular the annual Combined Services Culinary Challenge at Sandown park each October and support to the Combined Services Culinary Arts Team.
Further Information.
DFS Frequently Asked Questions provides additional information on some of the more regular queries to the team. More detailed information, including Joint Services Policy documents, can be found in the Catering Documentation Library.