Church Resources understands consideration of consumer taste preferences is a very important part of running foodservices and menu planning. Food supply does change over time and different generations will have their own likes and dislikes.
Strategies to Implement Menu Choice
All your consumers will have a food memory. Don’t discount those consumers who have dementia. Food is a comfort to us all and provides a sense of stability. The menu is important to provide this stability and can help ground your consumers and make them want to eat the meals provided.
It is important to plan menus that reflect the population you are catering for. This can be done through preference surveys, asking for suggestions and receiving menu feedback. If a menu is planned with foods which are unliked, food wastage will increase. This has a negative effect on the bottom line but more importantly can have a detrimental impact on the nutritional care of residents.
We have a saying in the aged care sector that “a loss of an eating occasion is a loss in providing nutrition”. This is very true for the elderly who are often small eaters with a reduced intake. Menu planning for large groups of people can be especially difficult, hence the importance of clever choice strategies which will support mealtimes.
In case you missed it, watch our webinar via the link below, where we went over how to plan menus and integrate choice quickly to support your consumers. Our guest speakers, Stephan Blant and David Venn, also gave great industry insights into how they successfully implementing choice in their aged care homes.
Blog written by Dr Karen Abbey – Procurement Australasia Foodservice Ambassador
