In a little over a year the McCain Purely Potato range has helped LACA revolutionise school meals. The pressure on caterers, local authorities and suppliers to change the way we all think about school meals is immense. We saw the new Government guidelines as an opportunity to reinvent the school meal - making them attractive to caterers, parents and children alike - striking a balance between providing healthy, nutritious school dinners and giving children the food they love.

It has been reported that kitchen staff work 15 hours each month in overtime to provide school meals. Purely Potato is simply peeled, cut and water blanched, making the time-consuming and wasteful preparation of potatoes easier. The range brings not only convenience to hard-working kitchen staff but also frees up time to focus on main meals and preparing the dining areas to feed hundreds of hungry students. By re-focusing the kitchen operation and helping to control waste, Purely Potato offers a practical solution to help manage costly overheads.

We are proud of our track record of working in partnership with our customers and are committed to helping cut through the confusion around school meals and support caterers in providing nutritious and delicious meals for children.

We provide information on pack to help caterers know how often they can be served under current Food Based Standards, for the Purely Potato range as frozen (when used as an ingredient) oven baked and roasted with sunflower oil.

As an additional support to school caterers, we have developed quick and easy chef demonstrations which provide school meal planners with exciting and innovative menu ideas for every day of the week. Visit our website for 11 recipes for meat and vegetarian options, which show how easy McCain Purely Potato is to use.

Our aim is to help reverse the decline in school meals by supplying a range of food that pupils enjoy and make life easier for busy caterers.

The simplicity of Purely Potato is the fundamental basis for its success. What Purely Potato has achieved for caterers is tremendous and is grounded in this simplicity. With simplicity comes great flexibility - add different herbs and spices to transform the humble potato - the only limit is the caterers' imagination.

We are looking forward to the second year of Purely Potato with renewed optimism that, in partnership with caterers and local authorities, we can ensure children are enjoying nutritious and delicious catered school meals for many years to come.

The benefits of using Purely Potato from McCain are clear:

• Reduce costs because there are fewer labour overheads
• Pre-prepared, so there is lower risk of cross-contamination in food preparation and storage
• Free from chemical preservatives which means Purely Potato is safe for all diets
• Improved portion control - a 10 kg case delivers 100 x 100g portions with no waste and helps to manage budgets effectively
• Reduced seasonal variation means that the potato quality is good throughout the year
• Versatile products that can be used in a variety of ways - lunch, break and as an accompaniment or ingredient