Complete data were collected from 50 rest homes.
Forty-five rest homes reported having documented foodservice
procedures and related policies in place.
There were a number of options for the delivery of foodservices
to rest home residents. In the present study, four rest
homes used a cook-chill production system, and 46 used
cook-fresh production. One of these had food ready two
hours before the scheduled meal time and reheated menu
items as required. Thirty rest homes used plated meal service
from a centralised servery to adjacent dining rooms, and 20
operated a decentralised service from bulk meal trolleys. Two
rest homes offered a buffet service for breakfast.
Although it was not ascertained who initially planned the
menus, 39 and 37 rest homes had policies regarding menu
development and menu auditing, respectively. Dietitians had
audited 45 of the menus to ensure they met Health and
Disability Services Standards.13
Five of the 50 rest homes had menu cycles of three or
fewer weeks, and 45 had cycles of four to six weeks
(Figure 1). Forty-two reported having both summer and
winter menus, although one indicated it did not use its
seasonal menus.
Assessment of nutritional guidelines was undertaken,
based on the Dietitians New Zealand (Inc) menu audit tool
(revised 2008), designed to assess potential of a menu to meet
the needs of the client group. A full review of menus was
outside the brief of the present study. Standards checked
included:
• Fruit—at least 2 ¥ 80–100 g servings per day
• Vegetables—at least 3 ¥ 80 g servings per day
• Grains—5–6 ¥ 30 g servings per day
• Legumes—at least twice per week
• Fish—1–2 ¥ 100 g servings per week
• Lean meat and poultry—4–5 ¥ 100 g servings per week
• Eggs—3–4 per week
• Nuts offered
• Milk and milk products—3 ¥ 250 mL servings/day
Figure 2 illustrates the extent to which rest homes met the
standards. Only 31 rest homes met the standard for milk and
milk products. Most served some low fat milk and milk
products; eight did not offer these. Four did not offer standard
milk. Nine rest homes reported the use of calciumenriched
milk. All facilities served cheese.
Some rest homes did not meet the serving recommendations
for fish (n = 9), meat and chicken (n = 13), eggs (n =
19) and legumes (n = 19).
Rest homes were asked what accommodation they made
in the menu for people with small appetites or early satiety to
ensure adequate nutritional and energy intake. Nine rest
homes reported nothing special for main meals, and three
did not provide special items for between-meal snacks. The
most common between-meal snacks were protein sandwiches
(26 rest homes), or custard, yoghurt and milk-based