Squaddies threaten to boycott Army messes after being forced to pay extra £300 a year for ‘maggot’ meals
Furious troops post pictures on social media of maggot-infested tomatoes and mouldy eggs at barracks
SQUADDIES are threatening to boycott Army messes after being forced to pay an extra £300 a year for maggot-infested meals.
Defence chiefs will put up prices by a whopping 17 per cent from October 1 - despite complaints about quality.
Six months ago troops posted pictures on social media as part of an online campaign of maggot-infested tomatoes, mouldy eggs and under-cooked chicken six months ago .
The hike - more than 30 times the rate of inflation - was the final straw for some servicemen and women who are now demanding better nosh for their money.
Catering giant Sodexo is paid hundreds of millions pounds of taxpayers' money to serve high-quality food to troops.
But the firm has been strongly criticised in recent weeks by members of the military who have called on the MoD to carry out an investigation into the company.
The cost of all three core meals — breakfast, lunch and dinner — has risen from £4.89 to £5.74 per day.
That is a rise of £5.95 a week, or £310 a year.
Junior soldiers on £18,000 a year will be hit the hardest.
Most got a pay rise of £180 last year — but will now be around £120 a year worse off.
Labour MP Kevan Jones, a former defence minister, said: “On top of pay freezes and compulsory redundancies hiking canteen prices is another blow to armed forces morale.
“It’s yet one more example of ministers’ claims to value our armed forces meaning little in practise.”
One soldier said: “Personally I think we need a tri-service personnel boycott of Pay As You Dine facilities for a month.
“Hitting them in the pocket is the only thing they’ll understand.
“We can write in the complaints book all we like, but they’ll do nothing.
“We can complain to the higher ranks during divisional meetings, but they’ll do nothing.
“The only thing that would make a change is if we force them to change how they operate their business.
Another source said: “Troops are absolutely fed up with quality of food being served up by Sodexo.
“The MoD keep trotting out the line that the food is top quality but it’s nonsense and now we are having to pay more.
“The guys in my base are marching with their feet and cooking their own food in their barrack rooms even though its against the rules.”
Sodexo has more than 7,500 permanent staff operating on 87 military bases.
In 2013, horse meat was discovered in products from a supplier that could have ended up at the barracks.
The firm also supply schools, hospitals and staff canteens.
An MoD spokesman said: “The independent Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body recommended we do this to pay for improvements in the quality and nutritional content of the food.”
And a spokesman for Sodexo said: “The price rise has been mandated by the MoD following a recommendation by the Armed Forces Pay Review Body. Sodexo has not made this decision.
“Sodexo does not make any profit from the provision of core meals and it will not make any profit from this price increase.
“The extra money will be put towards improving the quality and quantity of core meals on offer.”
They added: “We are one of a number of companies who provide catering services to the Armed Forces.
“We have listened to the issues raised about our service at military sites which we operate and take them very seriously.
“We have implemented a number of steps to ensure that the food served meets the best standards possible and any complaints made at our sites are looked into and addressed straight away."
The spokesman denied the images of poor-quality food were from their sites, saying: "We know categorically that a number of the photos being circulated have been taken from sites where we do not operate and there is no evidence that other images are from Sodexo sites.”