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Nourishing Lives: The Importance of Proper Nutrition in Care Homes

By Sophia Cornelius, Development Dietitian at apetito and Wiltshire Farm Foods Professional

Care homes will commonly cater for residents living with a wide range of nutritional needs. Some may be nutritionally well and require a healthy, balanced diet, whereas others may have health conditions that affect their appetite or limit what they can eat. Residents may also require specialist diets, such as texture modified meals, or different approaches to eating, like finger foods, to meet their nutritional needs.

Understanding how to cater for this diversity to ensure all residents receive adequate nutrition and hydration is essential – and the costs of getting it wrong can be severe. A lack of proper nutrition heightens the chance of malnutrition, increasing the risk of infection, impaired wound healing and impacting strength and mobility - all which increases an individual’s care needs.

Admist current financial pressures and labour challenges in the sector, it’s important to keep resident nutrition front of mind within your catering services.

Smart menu planning is vital in helping to meet varying dietary requirements, as knowing your residents’ preferences and any specialist diets reduces the need for personalised a la carte menus during mealtimes. For instance, if there are several residents that are vegetarian and require ‘easy chew’ meals, it is possible to serve a meal that satisfies both needs simultaneously. This approach streamlines food preparation and reduces strain on the kitchen team, while still meeting and respecting individual requirements – ensuring everyone has something suitable to eat.

Good nutrition and hydration should also extend beyond main meals. Offering snacks and drinks between meals provides a valuable opportunity to support residents’ nutrition, especially for those with smaller appetites who benefit from a "little and often" approach and need additional eating occasions to reach their recommended intake.

For residents living with specialist dietary needs, such as a food hypersensitivity or texture modified diet, catering can be complex. However, it is still important that everyone is served a safe, nutritionally balanced meal. To

ensure this, staff awareness and understanding of individual requirements is crucial, with inadequate communication or oversight leading to residents being offered food or drink that is unsafe, with potentially serious consequences.

The dining environment is another area that can significantly affect residents’ food intake. A calm, relaxed setting encourages eating with others, which is often found to increase the meal intake. To achieve this, care homes should have clear, uncluttered tables with simple place settings, adequate space for each resident, light and neutral wall colours to limit distractions and avoid loud music or televisions during mealtimes. This helps residents focus on their food and enjoy social connections while dining, contributing to improved nutrition and quality of life.

Pre-prepared meals can be a practical solution for care homes needing to meet diverse dietary needs. These meals use dietary-coding (e.g., energy dense, higher protein, or easy chew) and have the nutritional information per portion easily accessible, helping catering staff to easily create balanced menus that can cater for a wide range of requirements.

For further support in menu planning and food service practices, the BDA Care Home Digest is a valuable resource . It provides practical guidance on creating menus that meet residents’ nutritional needs and outlines best practices to ensure consistent delivery of adequate nutrition and hydration.

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