Good quality of supportive meals

The issue concerns the supportive meals, which pursuant to the law are provided by KGHM through Lubinpex to the miners working underground. The miners receive coupons for the meals, which can be used by them within three months at “Smakosz” canteens. The miners can also take advantage of, before and after underground work, coffee substitute, milk, buttermilk, mineral water or mint tea.

The quantity of food products due to one employee depends on the number of underground trips. The miners receive: cured meat or tinned fish and pâté, hard cheese, butter or margarine and juices. The miners can choose from 21 types of cured meat from 5 suppliers, tinned meat (10 types), tinned fish (15 types), hard cheese (7 types), butter and margarine (from 11 producers) and fruit juices and nectars (18 types). All of them come from recognised local and national producers. The HR departments of KGHM branches and representatives of the trade unions participate in sampling the offered assortment. To date there have been no objections regarding the offered food during these presentations. 
– The last sampling took place at the turn of January and February this year and showed no irregularities. And that's the time to make any comments, which would be reviewed by us – explained Renata Kopa, director of the trade department at Lubinpex. 
At the end of February the representatives of one of the trade unions operating at KGHM filed a complaint to the President of the Management Board of KGHM regarding the food offered to the employees of the mines. The trade union representatives accused the employer of the food not meeting the nutritional and taste specifications, being of poor quality and having short expiry dates. They also complained about the small selection of products.

Lubinpex chose a recognised certified and accredited Food Evaluation and Health Diagnostics Laboratory at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences to conduct the tests. The results of the analyses of the laboratory are respected by the Food and Nutrition Institute, State Institute of Hygiene and Chief Sanitary Inspectorate of the Ministry of Health. The team of scientists tested the taste, flavour, texture and appearance of the products. The products were evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5. The laboratory tested 28 types of cured meat, 4 tinned meat and fish, 4 diary processed products, 2 margarines and 10 types of juices and nectars. The results of the tests were positive. 
- The majority of the products received a score higher than good, on average 4.08 on a scale of 1 to 5. The products of our suppliers have the appropriate certificates of the state certification institutions and are supervised by the state institutions controlling the retail food trade – said Ryszard Plichta, the President of Lubinpex. 
The scientists also noted that the range of products offered to the miners is very extensive and the content of nutritional products is appropriate. 
– Considering the nutrition standards for the supportive meals, the absolutely complete composition of the meals offered by Lubinpex lacks only carbohydrates, which are contained e.g. in bread, cereal or pasta - said Professor Franciszek Świderski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. 
– As a principle our meals are supposed to compensate ¼ of the daily calorific expenditure of a miner, because the rest of that expenditure is supplemented by the miner after work. However we can always add carbohydrates to supportive meals – added Ryszard Plichta. 
The practice to date shows that the miners most often use the food coupons for cured meat, hard cheese and juices. According to the data for the last four months, the miners received each month on average 20 597 kg of cured meat, 1 532 kg of tinned chopped pork, 792 kg of tourist and Tyrol type tinned meat, 2 437 kg of poultry pâté, 8 002 kg of butter, 5 124 kg of margarine, 11 366 kg of hard cheese, 1 487 kg of tinned fish and 47 530 l of juices and nectars.

The Management Board of Lubinpex says it will conduct regular quarterly tests of the quality of offered products.

It should be stressed that Lubinpex continuously improves the standard of service to the miners at the canteen, which is reflected in the “Smakosz” brand being successfully developed for the last few years - the canteen at St. Jacob Shaft at Polkowice-Sieroszowice mine received the Food Business Award for the best employee canteen in Poland in 2012.