Rushall fish bar gets health award

Queen's Fish Bar, based on Queens Road in Rushall, Walsall, has been given a gold health switch ward from Walsall Council after developing its healthy menu range.

Despite only being open three years, owner and manager Daljeet Singh has worked hard with the council’s environmental health team to learn new cooking techniques that minimise oil absorption, sugar, salt, fat and other additives.

By adopting simple cooking techniques the fish bar is now producing food that is lower in fat, with popular meals now including grilled fish and mini meals. In a few short months since Mr Singh adopted the healthier changes, the council say customers have already praised the chippy and are already adding their own suggestions too - including serving salad instead of chips.

Mr Singh said: “The health switch scheme has been an exciting journey which was easy to do. We keep our customers happy by providing them with the best quality food. Getting the right oil temperature is very important and means when we fry our thick cut chips (not battered), they absorb less fat.

"We offer a range of healthy choice salad wraps & pitta breads which are proving popular, as are the mini meals and kids meal - served with mushy peas and baked beans. The changes were simple, but make such a difference.”

Councillor Ian Shires, the portfolio holder for environmental health and food safety at Walsall Council, said: “I’m very pleased that Queen's Fish Bar has received this award. It's well deserved and shows that the public is very receptive to healthier food options. Daljeet's dedicated approach to healthier food, its preparation and customer focused menus has really paid dividends. Well done."