Acceptability of Products and Eating Pleasure in Elderly People Living at Home or in Establishment Hosting For the Dependant Elderly (EHPAD) (Old-people's Home)

Acceptability of Products and Eating Pleasure in Elderly People Living at Home or in an EHPAD

In independent elderly people, the aim is to test recipes for different types of food from different countries (starter, main course with culinary aids, carrot purees, desserts and smoothies) likely to improve sensory acceptability of foods for elderly people who are dependent for their meals (persons for whom at least one meal per day is provided by a catering service - meals at home, old people's home). All of the recipes were developed thanks to the first two parts of the OPTIFEL project so as to take into account the needs of elderly people and recommendations in each country. The interest is to increase the sapidity/ attractiveness of meals by optimizing sensory properties and the nutritional content of the foods, to meet the nutritional needs of this specific population with enriched recipes (with leguminous proteins and/or vitamins and minerals and/or fibre) suitable for different cultures. This ongoing research is being conducted on 2-4 different variants of each type of product: the starter (a soup of legumes), the main dish (diced chicken with culinary aids) and garnished (carrot puree), an apple-based dessert and fruit smoothies.

For each product family, two products will be selected for each country: the preferred product (highest hedonic value of recipes enriched with leguminous proteins and/or vitamins and minerals) and the standard product without enrichment.

Finally, at the end of this study, nine products will have been chosen: 2 soups, 2 culinary aids, 2 carrot purees, 2 desserts and 1 smoothie

Inclusion Criteria:

• people older than 65 years
• persons living in EHPAD-type old people's homes or living at home and using a meals-on-wheels service
• persons without known heart disease or arterial hypertension
• persons who have given oral consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Persons suffering from a serious illness during the trial
• Persons with life expectancy of less than 6 months
• Persons with proven anosmia (total loss of olfaction), from birth or because of physical trauma (head injury) or disease (acute rhinitis)
• Persons with an allergy or an aversion for any of the foods used
• Persons with a strict prescribed diet