Aged Care Insite Issue 110 Dec-Jan 2019 | Page 26

practical living Darren Benfell. Photo: TCF Appetising answers to eating problems One chef’s quest to create five-star meals for people on textured diets. Darren Benfell interviewed by Conor Burke T he recent Four Corners exposé brought many issues to light and has caused the sector to reflect. One of those issues is the food on offer to our aged care residents. The size of meals and the nutritional value were questioned, as well as the lack of options. Recent studies have found that “funding cuts to the aged care industry impact catering budgets and aged care staffing levels, which may in turn affect the nutritional status of aged care residents”. The average total spend in Australian dollars on catering consumables (including cutlery/crockery, supplements, paper goods) was $8 per resident per day – less than aged care food budgets 24 agedcareinsite.com.au internationally (US, UK and Canada), and less than community-dwelling older adults ($17.25) and, even more surprisingly, 136 per cent less than for Australian corrective services. Another concern surrounds the fact that often up to 60 per cent of aged care residents, as well as people with throat and mouth cancers, stroke, dementia, multiple sclerosis and other conditions, require meals of an altered texture. In-house production of these meals is often plagued by issues of inexperienced kitchen staff, incorrect consistency, dilution of ingredients and nutritional content, and patients’ inability to identify what is served, resulting in a lack of interest in eating. Textured Concept Foods (TCF), established in Melbourne in 2013, is one of the only companies in Australia focused on the commercial production of shaped, all natural, texture-modified meals for hospitals, aged care homes and private customers. Aged Care Insite spoke with Darren Benfell, founder and managing director of TCF, to hear more about the challenges of catering to those with texture-altered diets. ACI: What difficulties do providers face with texture-modified meals? DB: The difficulties I’ve found, and I do know that are out there – I come from an age care background; I’ve worked in these kitchens myself – is getting the textures correct on a continuous basis and ensuring the nutritional value is locked into those products as you’re cooking them. Then, when you’re vitamising the products, ensuring that you get the right consistency, which is very difficult. A lot of it has to do with timing, or what you’re doing in the kitchen. In most aged care kitchens, they don’t have enough staff to assist in specified textured foods, so they normally leave that role to the cook who’s cooking another 150 meals, or the required amount of meals.