UPDATED: 3.41PM Southland Hospital patients and staff are having just as many issues with the catering company Compass as their Dunedin counterparts.

Compass' food quality has come under intense scrutiny, with most of the strife on social media aimed at Dunedin Hospital.

The issues were the focus of a public meeting at the Invercargill Workingmen's Club today.

Invercargill deputy mayor Darren Ludlow said the Southland Hospital patients aren't the only ones with a sour taste in their mouths.

"The number of staff that are eating in cafeterias, both in Dunedin and in Invercargill, is also hugely down so that doesn't speak particularly well either."

Ludlow said the responses at Southland Hospital are similar to those in Dunedin.

"Some people, to be fair, have said: 'oh no we don't see any problem', but actually overwhelmingly, there's a lot of people who say they don't find the food acceptable."

Compass Group is denying accusations it supplies poor quality food to Southern DHB patients.

Real Meals Coalition Spokesperson Anna Huffstutler said as well as launching a petition, the group would like Compass to prove the quality of its food.

"We would like to publicly challenge Compass to a real meals feast competition where Compass would have to put their meals up against meals that we would source locally and cook.

"The public response was certainly in favour of having our kitchens back in-house. We had a couple of people who had been meal recipients in the hospital speak about their personal experience."

Ms Huffstutler said about a hundred people turned up to today's meeting.