Essential Facts to Know About Aged Care Food Menu

Sallyjerkinson
3 min readMay 13, 2024

An aged care food menu has altered a lot in the past five years. There are quality standards that must be adhered to. Chefs in aged care have so far done an excellent job in keeping up with these standards.

Considering the daily challenges to keep up with the budget and restrict waste, there’s some advice they need to follow to prepare an aged care food menu that will tick all the boxes.

Pleasing Everyone Else

The aged care food menu provider must make sure they have consulted with the residents or the aged people. Food will not add to their health nutrition unless they are eaten by them. Party pies may be okay to be served but still, they are not the most healthy and most nutritious food. The menu served must best reflect their cultural demographic. This is very important in this case. This will also come back to communicating with elderly people. Their foods must be known traditionally. They must also normally eat and be adapted to the menu suiting that.

Daily Menu Inclusion

The three main meals in a day must carefully be outlined. This can include supper, afternoon, and morning meals. All of the aged care food menu must provide six meals in the entire day. Smaller amounts must be eaten more regularly way and this is very much essential. This is a good strategy to obtain more energy and protein as part of their diet.

Protein Requirements Met

Chefs must concentrate further on protein. The elderly requirements in protein must be met despite it increasing as their age. If they lose some weight, they would also lose some muscle mass. For once, a hot breakfast would increase their protein intake. They should make it sure there’s meat alternative or meat as part of their lunch meal. Protein must likewise be added in the soup.

The requirements for dairy for people aging seventy are usually higher as compared to younger people. Make sure a lunch or dinner should have a dessert with half a dairy serving. This could be in the form of custard, yogurt, and milk in a panna cotta or even rice pudding.

Even sandwiches are also popular. Ensure there are like 50 grams of protein such as roast beef, shredded chicken, cheese and mashed egg. Even Omega 3 is essential in this case. Fish must likewise be part of the menu several times a week.

Menu Variety

The addition of variety to the menu should be kept interesting. The menu must be changed with the seasons. It shouldn’t be regarded as a static menu. Repetition must be avoided with the main protein foods. No chicken should be added for lunch and also for dinner. There must be a unique type of protein dish served.

Menu choice and the variety in the meals would impact the life of the elderly people. It is highlighted in this context and its effect can be helpful for the nutritional status and health of the elderly people!

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