Serve Size and Estimated Energy and Protein Contents of Meals Prepared by ‘Meals on Wheels’ South Australia Inc.: Findings from a Meal Audit Study

Tony Arjuna,Stijn Soenen,Michelle Miller,Natalie Luscombe-Marsh,Ian Chapman,Renuka Visvanathan

doi:10.3390/foods7020026

Abstract

An audit of ‘standard’ (STD) and ‘energy and protein fortified’ (HEHP) meals from Meals on Wheels (MOW) South Australia’s summer menu was conducted to evaluate the consistency, and serve size and nutrient contents, of their menu items. Twenty soups, 20 mains and 20 desserts from each of the STD and HEHP menus were prepared at the MOW South Australia’s kitchen and delivered to three ‘sham(dummy)-clients’ over a 5-week period. Each meal component was weighed in triplicate, to the nearest gram, the variation within the serve weight was calculated, and the overall energy and protein content of each meal was determined using FoodWorks (Xyris Software, Highgate Hill, Queensland, Australia). On average, the variability for soups and mains was ≤6% and for desserts was ≤10% and although the measured serve sizes of the MOW meals were consistently smaller than prescribed serve size, the differences were minor. As a percentage of recommended daily intakes (RDIs) for adults aged over 60 years, we calculated that the STD meals contained 21–39% for energy and 42–63% for protein while the HEHP meals contained 29–55% for energy and 46–69% for protein. These findings demonstrate that MOW meals currently meet the voluntary meal guidelines for energy and protein.

Highlights

Governments world-wide recognise that adequate nutrition is fundamental for the maintenance of health, independence and the quality of life of people across all life-stages
The Home and Community Care (HACC) guidelines state that both home- and centre-based food services must provide a minimum two courses to older adults who struggle to self-fed, prepare or shop for food, and that each meal should contain the recommended food servings providing at least one-third of recommended daily intakes (RDI) for energy, half of the RDI for protein and other vitamins and minerals, and two-thirds of the RDI for Vitamin C [7,8]
Many meal services do not know the variability within the recommended portion/serve sizes of all menu items, or the nutritional content of the meals they provide, or how well those meals comply with the government guidelines

Summary

Introduction

Governments world-wide recognise that adequate nutrition is fundamental for the maintenance of health, independence and the quality of life of people across all life-stages. To assist nutritionally vulnerable adults aged ~60 years and older (and their carers) to remain living independently in the community, many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Ireland and Canada, provide free or heavily government subsidised meals to their communities through programs such as ‘Meals on Wheels’ (MOW) [3,4,5]. The HACC guidelines state that both home- and centre-based food services must provide a minimum two courses (namely, main course and dessert) to older adults who struggle to self-fed, prepare or shop for food, and that each meal should contain the recommended food servings providing at least one-third of recommended daily intakes (RDI) for energy, half of the RDI for protein and other vitamins and minerals, and two-thirds of the RDI for Vitamin C [7,8]. Many meal services do not know the variability within the recommended portion/serve sizes of all menu items, or the nutritional content of the meals they provide, or how well those meals comply with the government guidelines

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Conclusion