Cold food production saves energy and reduces waste - Tuusulanjärvi school feeds 600 children daily

Metos supplied the kitchen for the brand new Tuusulanjärvi School Centre, where 600 children are fed daily. "Equipping the cold preparation kitchen requires special expertise, but everything went very well, thanks to the long and well-functioning cooperation," says Kirsi Hanski, Food Service Manager of the municipality of Tuusula.

The Tuusulanjärvi school center in Uusimaa is still glowing with newness, as it was opened last year on the eve of the new school year. The premises are home to two schools, Tusby Träsk Svenska Skola and Tuusulanjärvi School, as well as the Tuusulanjärvi day-care center. The new school center arose from the aim to build healthy and safe facilities for children, students and staff. From the very beginning, staff, pupils and children in early childhood education have been involved in the design of the culture and learning environment.

In total, Tuusulanjärvi has space for 450 schoolchildren and 189 children in early childhood education. Four people work in the kitchen.

– Today, 168 children from the kindergarten, 301 primary school pupils and 70 staff members went to lunch, making a total of about 600 lunches, describes Kirsi Hanski, Food Service Manager of Tuusula Municipality.

There are plenty of hungry children to feed in the kitchen when the lunch or snack bell rings, even though the Tuusulanjärvi school center is of average size. Some campuses can have up to a thousand students.

A cold production kitchen requires specialized skills

The food at the Tuusulanjärvi school center is prepared in a kitchen supplied by Metos using the cold production method. This is a service kitchen where raw food prepared in the central kitchen is cooked on site until it is ready. In addition, the Tuusulanjärvi kitchen prepares breakfast and snacks.

 

Metos has supplied the Tuusulanjärvi kitchen with, among other things, ovens, dishwashing equipment, serving buffet and a kettle. Metos' own production equipment has been made in own factory, so they are manufactured near and under reliable conditions, and little energy has been used to transport the equipment. The equipment has worked very well, and the installation and delivery went smoothly.  

– The same people have been working at Metos for a long time, and we have already designed many kitchens together, so there is no need to start from scratch. Metos knows us, which is a great advantage. A long relationship with a customer brings you closer!

A big advantage was that the whole project was planned together with Metos: where the food comes into the kitchen, where the refrigerated trolleys are, where the food is loaded into the oven and how it is served.

– We had a lot of help with the planning. In particular, the designers at Metos have been in close contact with our designers, so they know how to provide machines and equipment that suit our needs and that we can't always ask for ourselves.

Equipping a cold production kitchen requires specialized skills, just like working in one.

– Cold production is not something you learn in school, but something you must learn on the job. This perhaps adds unnecessary mystique to the industry, even though the method is now commonplace.

 

Kirsi Hanski was first introduced to cold production back in 2009.

– We were the first kitchen in Finland to start cold production. We got into trouble because people thought that food made this way could not be good. But in 15 years, the reputation has changed, and the industry has moved on.

Smart planning brings savings

Careful co-planning with Metos is reflected in the kitchen's everyday life, for example in good ergonomics, says Hanski. Kitchen work is medium-heavy, so working in poor conditions can be hard. 

– This is an area that is carefully considered. How food moves around as ergonomically as possible is an essential part of the design process. If a kettle or oven is in the wrong place, it may not be possible to move it around. If the solution on offer is slightly more expensive but more ergonomic, it's worth taking it, because it will pay for itself in no time.  

The Tuusulanjärvi school center has also thought about sustainability issues, as the building is heated with carbon-neutral district heating and uses green electricity.

– Cold food production itself saves a huge amount of energy, as the food is not cooked and cooled. We can rely on Methos to provide energy efficient and responsible equipment.

Cold production also helps the schools in Tuusulanjärvi to reduce waste.

– The food at the school is fresh, so if there is a flu epidemic and a lot of children are absent, we can control the amount of food served.

According to Hanski, the three most popular dishes in the Tuusulanjärvi school kitchen at the moment are fish soup, kebab sauce and baked sausage with mashed potatoes.  

– The fish soup is really good, and we add cream at the very end to keep the creaminess until the dish is ready.

There are two options every day in schools, one of which is vegetarian. The children get to choose what they eat.

 

– Here you can have even both! You can eat anything on the menu, except for special diets. And if there is any leftover food, it is also put on the table the next day to avoid wastage.

– This is also sustainability. If there is only a little food left over, we sell it to the staff at the price of the ingredients.