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.