The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards (Quality Standards) set clear, measurable expectations for safe, high-quality, rights-based care.
Standard 6: Food and nutrition highlights the importance of mealtimes not just for the provision of nutritionally balanced and delicious meals, but for creating opportunities to offer choice, celebrate traditions and provide opportunities for meaningful social connection.
January is a good time to set goals for a successful year ahead and look at ways to provide safer, higher quality care in 2026. It is inspiring to see providers making positive change in food, nutrition and dining. Here are some highlighted examples of good practice seen across 2025.
Initiatives to improve the food, nutrition and dining experience
- Documenting information received from older people about all aspects of their mealtime experience through feedback forms, food focus groups and conversation. This allows homes to make meaningful changes to menus and other aspects of dining to meet people’s preferences.
- Increased involvement of health professionals to make sure food and drink meets people’s needs, goals and preferences. This includes residential care homes employing allied health professionals such as dietitians, speech pathologists or occupational therapists, helping to provide increased monitoring of individuals at mealtimes, and regular opportunities for staff education.
- Assigning staff members as ‘Nutrition Champions’ to model good mealtime support practices, including checking if older people are receiving food and drink that they chose and that meet their individual needs (such as correct texture modification).
Promoting social connection at mealtimes
- Simple re-organisation of dining areas to create more communal spaces, calmer and quieter dining environments, and updated decor to create an inviting, social atmosphere.
- Management staff supporting older people at mealtimes with conversation and company. Their presence in the dining room also helps them to oversee how effective their systems and processes are in providing safe and enjoyable dining experiences.
Supporting individuals to make informed decisions around what they choose to eat and drink
- Calling the Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline for support. For example, when reviewing their policies and procedures for ‘dignity of risk’ in eating and drinking. Providers have used the hotline to seek guidance on their approach to make sure it is:
- Thorough
- Rights-based and evidence-informed
- Multidisciplinary, involving appropriate allied health professionals when required
- Providers, staff and older people using our resources to learn about the Eating and Drinking with Acknowledged Risk (EDAR) approach, choice and texture-modified meals.
Educating staff on texture-modified foods and thickened drinks
The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) provides the standardised terminology describing the texture of foods and thickness of fluids for those with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties. IDDSI is recognised as the best-practice framework for food and drink modification by:
- Speech Pathology Australia
- Dietitians Australia
- Institute for Hospitality in Health Care.
Many providers understand the value of IDDSI in providing a common language for describing texture-modified foods and thickened drinks to make sure older people receive meals they can enjoy safely.
Providing education and regular training on eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties and IDDSI helps staff to understand, correctly modify, and test modified food and fluids to make sure they meet the criteria for the IDDSI level required. This helps make sure older people with eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties receive safe care.
In 2025, we saw:
- more residential care homes including IDDSI theory and practice in their mandatory staff training as well as providing refresher training as a part of regular team huddles
- IDDSI’s wide variety of resources, including posters and handouts, displayed for reference in kitchens and staff areas
- chefs using their culinary skills to create texture-modified versions of classic meals and snacks. Examples included crumpets, lamingtons and pizzas – that looked and were reported to taste delicious.
Food, drink and the dining experience can have a huge impact on a person’s quality of life. Making small changes, with dedication and optimism, can lead to positive outcomes for people receiving aged care.
External resources:
ACQSC resources:
- Eating and drinking with acknowledged risk (EDAR) – a visual scenario and guide to help providers understand and use EDAR
- Food and dining preferences fact sheet – a planning sheet for recording a person’s food and dining preferences
