GONE are the days when hospital food barely extended beyond a plate of grey mince.

The Better Hospital Food programme has been up and running for about 18 months, headed by broadcaster Loyd Grossman.

But has it made any difference? Judging by a recent survey among patients at Andover War Memorial Hospital, it has.

The survey found that 75 per cent of patients scored the meal choice as either good or excellent; 95 per cent considered the ease of food ordering either good or excellent; and 70 per cent of patients considered their overall meal enjoyment good or excellent.

So the Andover Advertiser decided to go along and put the food to the test at the hospital, where 100 patients a day have to be fed as well as staff and visitors.

Food services manager Marc Phillips is convinced that the programme has made a difference.

"This is the first time since the 1950s that a national standard for hospital food has been set," he said in the hospital Peaches Restaurant.

A quick glance at a menu gives an idea of the range of food available these days. It varies from day to day.

A cooked breakfast is always available as well as porridge and cereal - and there is always a good choice of lunchtime and dinner meals. A typical example is minced beef cobbler, braised lambs' liver and onions, stuffed tomatoes, seafood flan salad or mixed side salad - all at a reasonable price. And there are always two specials available every day.

I was impressed by my beef and tomato hot pot, which had a slightly spicy flavour and was a far cry from the fare once associated with hospitals.

But Marc and his team also have to cater for special diets, people who cannot eat solid food and the logistics of ensuring the food is still appetising when it arrives at the patient's bedside.

"One area we're working on at the moment is pured food for patients who cannot eat solids," said Marc.

Often this involves fortified food so the key is to get the volume right so the patient doesn't have too much to cope with.

But a pile of mashed-up food may not look particularly appetising, so Marc is looking at ways of presenting the food reformed, shaped and more enticing.

Another intriguing problem is the transfer of the food from the kitchen to the patient.

Once the food is ready it is heated up to a high temperature to ensure it arrives hot.

But this has been causing problems with some dishes arriving on the ward looking rather dry.

So Marc's solution is to make sure the food is more liquid before it is heated up for transfer to the ward.

Every day Marc performs a balancing act between creating good value traditional food that is as far from institutionalised food as possible, while at the same time delivering within budget.

It seems to be working.