By Thomas Moore, Health Correspondent
Hospitals are spending as little as £3.68 a day providing food for patients in their care, official figures show.
A Sky News analysis of recent NHS statistics shows 18 hospitals spending £5 or less on daily patient meals.
And 177 institutions - almost half of those who supplied data - spend under £9 - the equivalent of less than £3 per meal.
On average, hospitals spend £9.66 per patient per day on food, the figures show. But there are huge variations between different NHS trusts.
The lowest amount spent was £3.68 at Livingstone Community Hospital in Dartford in Kent.
Tonbridge Cottage Hospital and Faversham Cottage Hospital, also both in Kent, spent £3.70 and £3.88 per patient per day respectively.
A spokesman for Livingstone said the costs were low because it bought food in without the need to maintain staff and kitchens to prepare it.
The highest reported spending was £31 at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool.
However, a spokesman said average costs were higher than usual because it included staff costs and they had to cater for more patients than they ended up admitting.
The figures also show that 52 hospital do not provide fresh fruit to their patients and 16 have not had their menus checked by a dietician.
At Nottingham University Hospitals, 15% of the ingredients are organic, meat comes from local farms and every meal is cooked from scratch. Yet the food bill is still below average at £8.67 a day.
John Hughes, catering manager for Carillion which operates the kitchen, said voluntary nutritional standards on hospital meals should be mandatory.
He told Sky News: "You have somebody providing a soup and a sandwich and calling it a meal and somebody providing a four-course dinner and calling it a meal.
"I am disappointed and worried there is still no minimum standard.
"We have very high standards here. We operate to a very reasonable cost, so cost is not a barrier.
"It comes down to a political decision - do we care enough?"
In August, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that for the first time hospitals will have to meet legally mandated standards and inspections will evaluate the quality of the food they serve.
Alex Jackson, from Sustain's Campaign for Better Hospital Food, said more than half of hospitals now buy in chilled ready meals.
"The data shows that where hospitals are freshly preparing and cooking food on site in their own kitchens they are able to make big savings. Those meals are also often the most popular with patients.
"So what we want the Government to do is support hospitals so they can keep cooking."
How much hospitals are spending on food was revealed as part of the publication of an enormous range of data for NHS institutions for the year 2012/13.
The figures show a wide variation in staffing, spending and procedures.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, said the website "allows people to hold us to account."
"Overall, what this wealth of published data suggests is an encouraging picture," he added.
"Despite having received little increase in funding over recent years, the NHS continues to provide high quality care, often to the highest standards in the world."
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