I HAVE to respond to recent letters regarding hospital food.

Carol Miller assumes quite wrongly that Mr Simpson must work in the kitchens because of his views (Letters, January 21). I can assure her that he does not, but I do. I am a service operative, one of a team who bring the meals up to the wards in the trolleys that she says smell so off-putting.

When you are ill in hospital any smell, regardless of what it is, must seem nauseating. She states more food was thrown away than was eaten. This is not plate waste, there are a number of reasons for waste which, I may add, is quite limited.

The elderly wards will only eat half of what other wards would eat, surgical wards have numerous patients that are not allowed to eat, and so it goes on.

Carol Miller is wrong to say that food ends up in pig bins - doesn't she know that this practice was abolished many years ago and is against the law?

Part of my job once per month is to attend quality assurance meetings where we taste a wide number of dishes and give our views, which are duly recorded. Some dishes on the menu are changed or taken off completely if they don't meet the requirements or tastes of patients.

We receive lots of good comments and praise from patients on the wards, so we know that they are enjoying their meals.

Mrs Jean Hallam,

Monkton Road,

Muncaster, York.

Updated: 09:10 Thursday, January 26, 2006