Celebrity chef Maggie Beer is using her passion for food and 40 years of experience to fight for better quality meals across Australia's aged care homes.

Key points: Maggie Beer runs training courses for cooks at aged care homes

Maggie Beer runs training courses for cooks at aged care homes She says it is not difficult to serve good food to residents "but you've got to really want to"

She says it is not difficult to serve good food to residents "but you've got to really want to" A study found that 68 per cent of aged care residents are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition

Five years ago she set up a foundation aimed at lifting standards and she now runs training courses for cooks in nursing homes.

"A good quality meal doesn't mean an expensive meal, but it needs a lot of thought and knowledge and care," she told 7.30.

The quality of food has been under scrutiny at the aged care royal commission, which heard some homes were spending as little as $7 per resident per day on meals.

Beer gave evidence at the commission.

"If you're only spending $7 a day you're only using frozen vegetables, you're having to use pre-packaged processed foods, you're having to use boosters for your stocks," she told 7.30.

Beer said "it's not too difficult" to create a nutritious meal plan, "but you've got to really want to".

"You've got to step back and see how you can."

Residents should be fed 'beautiful food'

Maggie Beer's stuffed mushroom and scrambled eggs. ( ABC News: Tony Hill )

Beer whipped up two meals — mushrooms stuffed with lentils, walnuts and ricotta, and scrambled eggs with cream and parmesan — to show 7.30 how she thought food in aged care should be made.

"If you feed people beautiful food, full of the smells of home cooking, and give them both nutrition and flavour, flavour first, goodness and nutrition absolutely and pleasure, together, the difference to wellbeing it makes to a resident, to all of us — and there's just not that understanding," she said.

Around Australia there are 21 aged care facilities under sanction by the Federal Government for poor performance.

7.30 has learned about a third of those have been cited for nutrition and hydration failures.

The royal commission heard that a University of Melbourne study had shown a staggering 68 per cent of aged care residents were malnourished, or at risk of malnutrition.

"One of the huge changes we have to make is training," Beer told 7.30.

"There are no standards, skills standards, right across the aged care industry."

'We cook fresh food every day'

Mel Ottaway says Aldersgate Aged Care provides a balanced diet for its residents. ( ABC News: Lincoln Rothall )

One of the homes that has benefited from Beer's training courses is Uniting Communities' not-for-profit Aldersgate Aged Care home in Adelaide.

It spends $8.50 per resident per day on meals.

The provider's executive manager of aged care, Mel Ottaway, invited 7.30 into the facility's kitchen and dining room. On the lunch menu was fish and chips.

"It's been a tough time in aged care over the last number of months," she said.

"We pride ourselves on the care and services that we provide but we don't always get it right.

Salvatore Trimboli says the food at Aldersgate Aged Care is "fresh every day". ( ABC News: Lincoln Rothall )

"We're very fortunate here because we actually have a cook seven days a week, so it means we have the ability to be able to cook fresh every day."

The facility feeds more than 100 residents daily and Ms Ottaway said it took a lot of effort to ensure residents were getting a nutritious and tasty meal.

"When you're thinking of an older person when they come into aged care, often they can be malnourished, often they've lived on their own and at times their intake hasn't been overly great," she said.

"So it's really important for us that we provide a really balanced diet, [to] hopefully ensure they improve their weight and enjoy their experience as well."

The facility has a quality coordinator to check whether residents are satisfied with their care and meals.

"We encourage [the residents] to provide lots of feedback, to talk to us. Our staff share meals with them so we can actually experience what they're experiencing, and try to work with them to deliver meals that they're enjoying," Ms Ottaway said.

Two of the Aldersgate's residents, Salvatore Trimboli and Shirley Laas, said they were both happy with the quality of food there.

Shirley Laas says she has been pleased with the food at Aldersgate Aged Care. ( ABC News: Lincoln Rothall )

"Freshness of the food is good because I can see they don't keep the food today for tomorrow... fresh everyday," Mr Trimboli said.

"When I moved in here three years ago I didn't know what I was going to find in here, and when I found the food come in I thought, that's yummy, and it's been good," Ms Laas said.

"In fact I eat everything on my plate ... I'm just a pig,"

Ms Ottaway sees the royal commission as an opportunity for the industry to lift its game.

"I would like to see consistent standard of services across all homes because residents shouldn't get a different standard of service depending on what home they're in," she said.

"We're obviously all entitled to a great life and a great death, and that's what we want."