©Syda Productions/Dollar Photo Club
A
feast for the eyes
— smooth puree diet moulding
improves oral intake Olivia Farrer, Accredited Practising Dietitian and PhD Candidate
Food service practices and diabetes management in aged care
exture modified diets, particularly smooth puree diets, have long been known to have little visual appeal, with a loss of texture and resemblance of the original food and even change in flavour from dilution of the food to achieve the right consistency. Such diets are frequently used in acute and residential aged care predominantly for people with dysphagia (swallowing difficulty) and who are at risk of aspiration, which can result in serious illness or even death.
Food images courtesy Textured Concept Foods
Approximately 10% of patients in acute care and 30–60% of residents in aged care have dysphagia and require management with a texture-modified diet, which is likely to be long term with very few returning to normal texture diets. Modified texture diets are often associated with a poor oral intake, which is frequently cited as being due to appearance, texture and mouthfeel of the food. Malnutrition in
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PREPARED FOOD - Apr/May 2016 | 15