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| Sunday, 20 June 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Gourmet food in the sky by Chanuka Mannapperuma With the completion of a US $ 25 million flight kitchen project by next year, Sri Lankan Airlines' Catering Services Limited will be able to triple its capacity and hopefully the best kitchen in the airline industry in the South East Asia Region. The facility on which construction began recently, will have the capacity to produce 4.75 million meals per year compared to the existing capacity of 1.65 million meals. The new flight kitchen will incorporate the latest technology and systems in aviation catering with state- of- the- art equipment," said CEO of Sri Lankan Catering, Dilip Nijhawan. He said that with the completion of this project, it will become the best kitchen in the South East Asia Region. The construction work on the flight kitchen which will be located on a five- acre land within the airport premises with its entrance on the Katunayake - Minuwangoda road, will be completed next year. "It will enable Sri Lankan Airlines to exploit existing and emerging opportunities in the airline catering industry, Nijhawan said. The kitchen will comprise of four levels which will house the stores and Engineering, Operation division, Production and Administration division." Now our Catering Service provides 500 meals per day and with this project we hope to increase it to 13,000 meals per day." Recently, a group of journalists were allowed to experience the operation process of the Catering Service.We were able to obtain first-hand knowledge of a day's work in the busy kitchen. Manager Hygiene and Quality Assurance, SriLankan catering, H.L.A Wanigasekera who counts many years of experiences and vast knowledge in catering, guided us around the Catering Service premises. We saw the cleanliness of every thing in the catering section. Every one in the catering section must have spotlessly clean hands. If not they will be punished by the management. There are many rules. One section does decoration of foods, cutting of vegetables fruits and meats using new equipment and a bakery section. Sri Lankan provides just 20% of the food used in the preparation of its flag carrier's in-flight meals, with fish ,selected fruits and vegetables comprising the majority of products consumed. the remaining 80% of raw materials are imported from various countries. Australia-fruit and vegetables, Thailand-rice, Singapore-dry goods, Denmark-dairy products and from France-mineral water. "Our catering facility has the capability to produce 4,500 meals per day. We offer our passengers food that is prepared with carefully to an aircraft's designation". For Japanese services the menu is normally based on the countries traditional eating preferences, whereas western schedules reflect European tastes. Describing the menus he said vegetarian diets are also offered, and Sri Lankan catering has experienced a 15% rise in demand for these meals, particulary on European flights, over the previous years. Catering has been awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification. The Kitchen is a Halal Certified one and plans are underway to acquire the HACCP Certification in the near future. |
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