Nutrition and Menu Planning Standards in Residential Aged Care Facilities in Australia and New Zealand

Scoping Project Brief

Currently there are no national nutrition and menu planning standards in Australia or New Zealand in the aged care setting. Good nutrition is important for good health at any age, but residents in aged care are particularly vulnerable. Indeed, a high prevalence of malnutrition in aged care facilities has been recognised in Australia.

The need for standards to ensure the nutritional care of elderly residents is adequate has been identified by dietitians and is supported by members of the Institute of Hospitality and HealthCare (IHHC).  Consistent and well informed standards which incorporate sufficient details regarding dietetic and food service aspects of menu planning are also important to food suppliers. These standards will become increasingly important as more health services receive meals or meal components from third party suppliers.

Final Project Plan

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to identify the top line literature and documentation pertaining to nutrition and menu planning standards in Australia and New Zealand and provide key recommendations for possible menu planning standards development for residential aged care facilities (RACFs).

Objectives

  1. To review, compare and contrast available nutrition and menu planning standards and related documents within Australia, New Zealand and internationally.
  2. To identify and review sentinel articles in the relevant to residential aged care facility nutrition and menu standards.
  3. To undertake targeted consultation on the need and format for menu planning standards for residential aged care facilities.
  4. To provide a report including key recommendations for the development of residential aged care facility nutrition and menu standards for Australia and New Zealand.
  5. To report on similarities on menu planning standards for hospitals across Australian jurisdictions which may be identified in the course of the project.

Literature Review

For the second stage of the project a systematic search of the literature was conducted for sentinel articles on nutrition and menu standards in RACFs. Access Literature review.