The textural properties of different forms of food, classified on the basis of eating effort by the elderly, were measured at Sugenosato Nursing Home for the elderly.
The results demonstrate that the forms of food that require little mastication effort and with a texture most easily lumped together within the oral cavity were all soft and high in both adhesiveness and cohesiveness.
It was also indicated that a consistent jellied food texture, which is a property helpful for people with swallowing difficulties, was soft and low in both adhesiveness and cohesiveness, and that it took a form that required neither mastication nor lumping together in the oral cavity.
Among the various forms of food studied, thin rice gruel and gruel prepared with a blender, which constitute staple food at the nursing home, were found to be the softest and the highest in adhesiveness and cohesiveness.
These findings imply that eating the main and side dishes (meat, fish, vegetables, etc.) simultaneously with the staple food (thin rice gruel and gruel prepared with a blender) makes it easier for the elderly to lump the food together in the oral cavity to form a bolus.
A commercially developed and marketed boil-in-the-bag meal series, classified according to the Food Category Table for the Elderly drawn up by Japan Care Food Conference, was demonstrated to have textural properties similar to those of the meals served at the nursing home, where the food is prepared according to the eating ability of each elderly person.
These results indicate the importance of measuring the textural parameters of the food served at hospitals and nursing homes for the elderly to identify whether or not an individual with deteriorated eating ability will be able to take in food in a safe manner.
