Elevating the Meal Time Experience: Practical Guide to Standard 6 – Food and Nutrition
The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards ensure that older people receive care that is safe, high-quality, and responsive to their needs, preferences, and rights. With an increased focus on food and nutrition, Standard 6 Food and Nutrition sets out outcomes that must be met. This guide supports food service teams in understanding and applying these requirements through practical approaches to nutrition, choice, and the dining experience.
Partner with older people to provide a quality food, drink and dining experience.
For this, you need their feedback – try:
- resident meetings
- food focus groups
- surveys
- feedback boxes
- one-to-one discussions
The chef and/or cook should be involved, and it can be useful to include families, too.
Document feedback and outline how it is used in menu planning.
Assess and meet the nutritional needs and preferences of each older person.
Resident nutrition, hydration and dining needs should be taken into account when menu planning. Clinical staff regularly assess these, so make sure there are good communication systems in place to receive this information.
Help monitor intake by documenting food waste.
Food charts can be helpful too, but make sure everyone is filling them in the same way, and that information is useful, e.g., ‘all vegetables and no meat eaten’ is more useful than ‘½ meal eaten’.
Provide access to nutritious food and drinks and give older people a choice about what and when they eat and drink:
- Document and follow standard recipes, including yield.
- Use standard serve sizes and utensils.
- Protein option at breakfast daily, preferably hot.
- 3 or more cereals at breakfast, including a hot cereal made with fortified milk.
- 2 hot options at lunch (main meal).
- 1 hot option + soup + sandwich and/or salad in the evening (light meal).
- Offer an alternatives list with lots of options that have a similar amount of protein to a main meal.
- Nourishing morning tea, afternoon tea and supper daily – snacks should have >5g protein + >500kJ, drinks >8g protein + >800kJ.
- Keep repetition low - focus on protein, dish style, vegetable variety, mid-meals, colours, flavours, textures.
- Minimum 3-week menu cycle
- Change the menu at least twice a year to include seasonal fruit and vegetables.
- Communicate all options and dishes clearly.
- Have systems in place that allow people to eat tasty and nutritious food throughout the day, e.g., a resident fridge with grab-and-go options, meals able to be served hot anytime.
An Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) should be involved whenever menus are changed e.g. seasonal updates. They should also conduct an in-home menu and mealtime assessment at least annually.
Meet the dining experience needs and preferences of older people.
Presentation is important; we eat with our eyes! Think colours and identifiable foods, especially for texture-modified meals.
Smell and temperature can also impact how much someone eats. Where possible, allow older people to enjoy the aromas of cooking. Ensure hot food is served hot and cold food is served cold.
What is a positive dining experience?
- Tables are set for a meal, no clutter!
- Crockery is used rather than plastic – it should feel like home.
- Lighting is not too bright or dull.
- Pleasant music can set the mood, nothing too loud and no dishwasher on in the background!
- A mealtime is not interrupted by medicine rounds, toileting or collecting glasses to see.
- Know your residents, what traditions do they have – daily, weekly and significant dates throughout the year.
