Care home serves up pureed food to look like meals

A company which runs six care homes across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire is believed to be one of the first to serve up pureed food that looks like meals.

Elderly residents at Milford Care homes who have difficulty swallowing food are benefiting from an initiative aimed at encouraging them to eat more.

People experience problems eating and drinking for a number of reasons, for example if they have had a stroke or suffer from dementia.

Adopting an idea from Germany, the pureed food is made to look like a meal again.

Using a thickening product called Gelea, a sausage will look like how a sausage should, and a carrot will look like a carrot etc.

Peter, 48, a chef of many years who has worked for Milford Care for eight years, read an article about the food, known as 'smoothfood' in 2014 and decided to follow it up.

Peter said:

Meals Peter has made using this process so far include chargrilled chicken breast with pineapple ring, meatballs with tomato sauce, and stuffed chicken.

Sheila Barwick, home manager at Milford House, said: