Improving Diet for Older Adults Through Food Texture Innovation

Project Title: DIGNIFIED Programme (Delectable, Integrative, Good NutrItion and Fulfillment in Elderly Diet)

Growing older can bring many joys, but it also presents challenges with eating - from changes in taste to difficulties with chewing and swallowing, leading to a decline in food enjoyment and nutritional intake. With the DIGNIFIED Programme, SIT is transforming older adults’ nutrition through delicious and accessible texture-modified meals.

A Holistic Approach with DIGNIFIED 

The DIGNIFIED Programme adopts a comprehensive approach to address the complex nutritional needs of older adults through a diverse team of experts from SIT and other institutions, bringing together food technologists, dietitians, speech therapists and culinary chefs. 

The programme's core aims are to: 

Understand the Asian Palate for older adults: Researchers conduct consumer profiling to gain deep insights into the food choices and preferences of older adults in Singapore. This involves interviewing 200 older adults to understand their eating habits and food preferences, ensuring the developed meals are well-liked. 

Create Delicious, Texture-Modified Menus: Using the insights from consumer profiling, the team develops 4-week cycle menus with various texture-modified levels. These menus, consisting of main meals and snacks, are carefully crafted by culinary chefs, dietitians, and speech therapists, with standardised recipes that include nutritional analysis and presentation tips. 

Develop Texture Modified Food Products: Scale up the production of texture-modified meals in various formats – catering, pre-packaged, ready-to-heat – to ensure widespread availability while evaluating whether key attributes like texture, flavour, and appearance are acceptable to consumers. 

Through the DIGNIFIED Programme, SIT is creating delicious, safe, and accessible texture-modified food options, bringing not only nutrition but also enjoyment back to the dining table.