Malnourishment is not a term used exclusively to describe the poor. Urbanisation and the breakdown of extended families have placed many seniors into this category for eating poorly owing to lack of supervision and choosing convenience over nutrition.
“Moreover, they usually shun foods that are not familiar or attractive. They often remark that I want to eat something tasty like curry mee. Why must I eat something so tasteless and bland?,” says Associate Professor Dr Chong Li Choo, Director of Food Security and Nutrition Impact Lab at School of Food Studies and Gastronomy at Taylor’s University.
Dr Chong is currently working on a project with her students in Culinology at Taylor’s University to research and develop food that are both appealing and nutritious for senior citizens.
Why the need to innovate food for seniors?
Requests from the food industry and from friends mooted the idea for this project. “My friends said they didn’t know what to cook for their parents and for those who do not stay with their parents they find them eating outside food often instead of cooking for themselves.
“In households where the adult children cooked the meals for the parents, they parents would not want to eat. Their parents would still prefer to eat out. We think it is probably for the socializing aspect of the meal. And their children are worried that they may not be eating nutritious food outside.
“For instance, they would prefer to go to have their coffee in the coffeeshop every morning. It could be because of the chance to meet up with friends. So we can design something that gives them the nutrition to complement their social life. Or if they like bread, we can make a kind of bread that will give them half the nutrients that is required and this can be made available commercially like in the coffee shop,” Dr Chong adds.
“Some seniors are callous about their nutrition and dismiss it as unimportant as they are already old. We see there is a gap between this and why the seniors are reluctant to eat healthy food.
After chatting with a few of the seniors, we heard them remark “we want to eat curry, why must we always eat bland vegetables with no taste. This is where we find the gap.”
Dr Chong explains that the diet for seniors is always higher fiber and healthy but the taste is missing. This is more prevalent amongst seniors who have non-communication disease.
That old familiar taste
Dr Chong and her students then put their heads together to work on producing food that the seniors would enjoy eating and are familiar with and also enriched with nutrients. With this as a basic supplement they can then continue to eat anything else they like.
“We will start with market research, looking at current food products for old people, the various categories of food being produced and what is missing in them.
“After that we will conduct research with a focus group of senior citizens or the younger caregivers of senior citizens in order to obtain more information on food, eating behavior and purchasing behavior.
“From the research findings we will move into ideation to come up with some product ideas and do some feasibility studies because at the end we will find out what combination of ingredients and taste would work.
“We do not aim for benchtop recipes even though restaurants can make them but we are hoping to change people’s impression of processed food by preserving . nutrients in the food better.”
Currently, ready to eat processed food is not a choice meal recommended for seniors. Dr Chong aims to change this impression by producing something that appeals to the seniors and their caregivers are comfortable with them eat it
Preliminary trends and market potential
From her preliminary research Dr Chong couldn’t find any meals that are designed specifically for old people. There are several catering companies that have therapeutic food that are not meant just for senior citizens.
Besides, most of the supplements are in powder or tablet form. She believes that they should come in a food form.
“We would need to include a nutritionist in our project to help with the ingredients pairing. We have the software to do the ingredient pairing but we are concerned about the nutrition and allergens that are not suitable for senior citizens and to take into consideration all other health conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes.
“Our role is to find the alternative ingredient. Besides reducing the sugar and make it tasteless, what other replacement can we use. There are some ingredients that the industry uses that consumers are not comfortable with. We can look at more acceptable alternatives like stevia. We also hope to educate consumers at the same time,” says Dr Chong.
One of the primary aims is to design food that has sufficient carbs and proteins.
Instant meals and ice cream are some ideas to attract seniors to consume at 50 percent of the protein required for the day.
“At the R n D stage we can see the cost is higher but when this becomes a common ingredient and everyone sees the health benefit, the increase in demand would bring the cost down.
“For this to hit the market, this would take at least 5 years. Ready-to-eat meals may be easy to design but we are not sure how well received it will be amongst the elderly. We need to ask them. Aside from their meal preferences of rice and vegetables, we also need to determine from their in-between meals eating habits and social influences to come up with more appropriate products,” Dr Chong adds. – JE Tan
