Delicious, healthy food to prevent malnutrition in the elderly
by Tim LambersEurope and Province of Gelderland invest
A consortium of SMEs and the Gelderse Vallei Nutrition Alliance, whose members include Gelderse Vallei Hospital, Wageningen University and NIZO food research, is taking up the challenge of preventing malnutrition among the elderly and patients, particularly in hospitals and nursing homes. The Cater with Care project is focused on the development and testing of new food products. High quality food is beneficial to prevention of disease and better recovery of patients as well as to the quality of life of the elderly in general.
The project concerns specific products with high nutritional value, not found in the categories of regular food products or (the very expensive) clinical food supplements. Cater with Care brings together the knowledge and experience of companies in East Netherlands in the area of healthy nourishment.
Leading organisations
The various production partners are going to conduct research into the improvement of existing and development of new high quality food products. These will be developed and tested in close cooperation with Gelderse Vallei Hospital, Wageningen University and NIZO Food Research. This will be an opportunity for the project's knowledge partners to become leading organisations in the areas of innovation and knowledge pertaining to elderly welfare, health care and the food products most effective for both. It will also be investigated whether the delivery of custom menus can be carried out effectively with the current meal distribution methods or whether there are bottlenecks.
Added value
Gelderse Vallei Hospital, catering company Sodexo and the participating nursing and care homes such as Opella, will contribute to the good health of their patients and residents by providing improved services (custom menus) and high quality, tasty foods. This added value will enable them to distinguish themselves from other care facilities.
ERDF subsidy
The collaborating partners Wageningen University, Food & Biobased Research bv, Gelderse Vallei Hospital, Sodexo bv, NIZO food research bv, Heinz bv, Stichting Promotie Kalfsvlees (Veal Promotion Foundation), Pure 4 You bv and Carezzo bv receive a subsidy of around €820,000 for the Cater with Care project from the European Regional Development Fund, and a similar amount is being provided by both the Province of Gelderland and the Government of the Netherlands. The partners themselves will contribute more than €1.8 million.