EDINBURGH, Scotland — Scotland could become the first country in the UK to legally oblige hospitals to serve nutritional meals to patients.
New guidelines on NHS catering have been unveiled by Health Secretary Alex Neil.
There will now be a consultation on whether the new measures should be legally binding.
Extra funding will be made available to help health boards improve food standards, and more inspections of hospital meals will be carried out.
Mr Neil said Scottish hospitals had made "great progress" in the quality of their food in recent years, but acknowledged there was still "more that can be done" to drive up standards.
The measures announced by Mr Neil were:
• Improved nutrition and catering standards introduced in the new year, supported by increased inspections of hospital meals.
• A consultation to determine whether nutritional standards in hospitals should be placed on a statutory footing.
• A further £300,000 will be invested to help boards to improve nutritional care.
Full details of the new guidelines are due to be published in January.
The health secretary said: "Scotland has led the way in the UK when it comes to developing and monitoring standards for nutritional care and catering in hospitals.
"We already have rigorous standards in place, and clear guidance about how these standards can be met. Catering teams, dieticians, specialist consultants and nursing staff are doing great work to ensure that patients are getting nutritious and balanced diets in hospital.
"We have made great progress, but I recognise that there is always more that can be done to drive up standards.
"We have been working on these new guidelines for some time as part of an ongoing review of nutritional standards."
He added: "This is part of a package of measures that will help to ensure that hospital food continues to improve, that NHS