Sue Smith, whose mother was living at a Melbourne aged care centre, says she was forced to bring her homemade soup

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Fed-up with the unidentifiable, tasteless blobs on plates that her mother was being served at a Melbourne aged care centre, Sue Smith started bringing her homemade soup.

Smith recalled nursing home staff would get frustrated that her mother, Jean, was not eating much.

“The staff would say [to her] ‘You’ve got to eat this food’ and it was so disgusting to look at – big blobs of brown, orange and white whatever,” Smith told Guardian Australia. “I tried it out of desperation and couldn’t distinguish any taste between any of the three blobs. I wouldn’t even feed it to my dog.”

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Smith complained in writing multiple times about the quality of food at the Melbourne aged care home and was frustrated it would not reveal the food budget per head, per day for residents.

A study published in 2017 of 817 Australian nursing homes found the average spend was $6.08 per person per day.

In comparison, the Australian prison system was spending on average $8.25 on food per prisoner per day.

Food quality is likely to be an issue examined in the royal commission into aged care quality and safety, which was established in response to damning incidents of neglect, abuse and negligence in nursing homes across the country.

Celebrity cook Maggie Beer has been on a mission to improve the quality of food in nursing homes after being named 2010 senior Australian of the year.

She set up a foundation in 2014 and has been conducting masterclasses with scores of aged care chefs. The chief executives of nursing homes are also involved in the program in order to secure cultural change.

Beer will be making a submission to the royal commission and wants to expand her program on a broader scale but needs funding.

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Beer said a lack of education was the biggest barrier to nursing homes changing their menus.

Being an aged care chef required much more skill than working in cafes and restaurants because people needed to understand the frailties and complex medical needs of residents, she said.

While eyesight, hearing and taste buds decline with old age, the sense of smell generally held strong, she said, adding that fresh food was also important.

Familiar language is also key and Beer used the example of gazpacho saying it would be better to describe it as tomato soup. “You don’t use the fancy title,” she said.

It’s possible to make crème anglaise from scratch in steamer ovens, she said but you would tell the residents it’s custard. “You would never have to use a custard powder again,” she said.

A new round of aged care royal commission hearings begin on 11 February.