Amadeus accredited by Vegetarian Society

Amadeus had its vegan dishes accredited by the Vegetarian Society across its venue portfolio recently. As caterer for the NEC in Birmingham (as well as the whole NEC Group), the business thought it fitting to make the special announcement at the venue’s Just V Show Winter, with venue executive chef David Siddall holding a special cooking demonstration celebrating vegan, vegetarian and plant-based living.

The caterer’s full venue portfolio has been audited by the society, including more than 100 dishes and recipes. This provides full traceability of ingredients with the additional use of the Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark, giving visitors full confidence that the dishes are suitable for vegan diets.

Marc Frankl, food and beverage director for Amadeus, said: “This accreditation from the Vegetarian Society is testament to the hard work of the people in our business, who are extremely passionate about the traceability of the food that we serve. I’d like to give a special shout-out to Vicky Belton from our purchasing team who really helped drive the accreditation forwards.

“Securing the use of the approved trademark means clients and visitors to our venues have full clarity on our offering, making a clear statement about the food we serve. Whether it’s sourcing the finest local ingredients or using state-of-the-art technology to help drive down food waste, we are putting sustainable practices at the forefront of our work across venues, and this is our latest step.”

Amadeus has also more than doubled its vegan offering across venues in the past two years, giving its chefs the tools to innovate in vegetarian and vegan cuisine.

Aaron Johnson-Waters, executive Chef at the Vox, played a key role in delivering the accreditation, recently introducing a new menu pack for the venue with 45% vegan ingredients.

He said: “I’m a proud vegan champion and I was thrilled to be involved in this project. Getting our vegan dishes accredited is testament to how hard our team works on developing our food and beverage offering – we pride ourselves on our quality and service.

“I found that veganism on the whole is such a small part of menu design. It tends to be non-existent, with customers having to request a vegan option, so this is our clear statement and commitment to the development of vegan dishes at our venue.”

Vanessa Brown, head of business services for the Vegetarian Society, added: “There’s a growing demand for plant-based dishes everywhere and it’s fantastic to see NEC Group's catering meeting the needs of their customers. By displaying the Vegetarian Society Approved vegan trademark, they are joining a multitude of businesses making a clear statement to their consumers that they can trust these dishes to be vegan.”

The caterer has also recently introduced a carbon labelling trial at its NEC and ICC venues. The trial is assessing the carbon impacts of 1,800 recipes sold at the venues, labelling dishes that are low carbon footprint.

You may also be interested in…