Effect of Physical Property of Pureed Food on the Preference of the Elderly

Abstract

To clarify the characteristics of desirable nursing-home food for elderly people，a sensory evaluation of preferences and measurement of the physical properties using apple mash were done．

The panel consisted of 139 elderly persons aged 65 years or older (25 men， 114 women， average age 83 years old) and 34 staff (14 men，20 women，average age 42 years old) in Gunma Prefecture nursing-home facilities． Three kinds of sample made of mashed apple with different viscosity were prepared，sample A (commercial apple mash)，sample B (thickening agent was added to sample A) and sample C (apple juice and thickening agent was added to sample A)．The sensory evaluation with ranking test was done for the elderly people．Also，a phonation test，articulation test，RSST and MWST were done as swallowing function tests． The level of judgment for severe care，ADL and state of tooth disease were investigated．Physical properties of the sample were measured with a B-type rotation viscosity meter and the texture analyzer．

As for the viscosity of the appearance， sample B was the highest， followed by sample A， then sample C． Sample B had the largest stress and adhesion energy，and sample C had the smallest．When the compression speed was changed，a high，positive correlation was found between the stress and the adhesion energy．

Sensory evaluation showed that sample C was the softest and had the lowest viscosity among the three samples， and was easy to swallow．“Overall preference” and ease of swallowing did not necessarily correspond to the choices of healthy people．

People with swallowing difficulties were selected from the panel members as a parameter for the articulation test，MWST and feeding level．People with swallowing difficulties evaluated sample C as the most palatable sample． It was thus clarified that the popularity of food depends on the degree of swallowing function．