Residential Aged Care Homes

Menu and Mealtime Appraisal and Review

Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards came into effect on November 1st, 2025. The new Standard 6 (Food and Nutrition) makes it mandatory for aged care providers to engage an Accredited Practising Dietitian once per calendar year to assess the dietary adequacy of meals served and to ensure that these reflect the residents' health requirements, their tastes and cultural preferences.
Partnering with older people to find out what they like to eat and drink and allowing residents to participate in menu planning to enhance their mealtime experience and express their cultural identity means implementing resident-centred care and choice.

Our Menu and Mealtime Quality Assessment includes:

• A visit to your residential aged care home

• A nutritional analysis of the current menu to ensure adherence to national dietary guidelines for the ageing population

• An appraisal of existing food service policies, practices and procedures to ensure compliance with aged care regulations

• Liaising with food service staff (chef, cooks, FSAs) to identify and rectify any non-compliant practices in the preparation and presentation of meals

• An assessment of test meals, both from the regular menu and from the texture-modified diet menu

• The compilation of a written report listing any shortcomings and providing constructive recommendations for improvement.

• A re-assessment of the aged care home’s compliance a few months later to review improvements made and provide further strategies to foster residents' wellbeing and social connectedness, freedom of choice and dignified independence.

Audits


IDDSI Support (Texture-Modified Diets for swallowing impairment)

Aged Care Recipes

HEHP Recipes

Finger Food Recipes

In our interactions with residents, we follow Dietitans Australia’s Aged Care Dietitian Role Statement