£110,000 monthly food bill for ship that serves 3,000 meals daily

WITH hundreds of mouths to feed, it is no wonder last month’s food shopping bill for HMS Queen Elizabeth came in at £110,000.

While visiting the largest and most powerful warship Britain has ever built last month, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon hailed the return of big decks and fast jets. But with 700 ship’s company plus 300 contractors and other personnel on board the £3bn behemoth, the vessel also needs big fridges, huge freezers and large store rooms.

Chief Petty Officer Tristan Pring said the ship’s food bill for just July was £110,000 – as they served more than 3,000 meals a day.

Revealing what items are consumed, he said taking into account all the other meats they order, 1,000kg of beef will last them 60 days if there are 1,000 mouths to feed.

“We go through thousands of bags of chicken,” he said.

He also said in six weeks they “pretty much” went through 1,000 2.7kg tins of baked beans, and in two weeks consumed 3,500 litres of milk.

“The company at the time that we get it off, couldn’t always supply to meet our demands,” he added.

In around eight weeks, he said, they also ate their way through 700 25kg bags of potatoes, with Chief Petty Officer Pring adding: “But I also had baking potatoes on top of that... I probably had 400 15kg boxes of those too.”

The ship also used 132,000 tea bags and 400 3kg bags of coffee.

With just under £3 per head per day to spend, Warrant Officer caterer Billy Shepherd said food is everything to the crew and that it is their “morale”.