Carehomes - Get your residents drinking more milk with Crusha

THE CHALLENGE

It’s no secret that catering for care home residents can be challenging. From reduced appetites and nutrition concerns to dysphagia and diabetes, each resident has their own specific set of needs to be considered. However, catering for the elderly can be extremely rewarding and caterers with a creative flair can enjoy developing innovative ways to encourage consumption and build positive health benefits.

One of the biggest challenges is to ensure that residents don’t suffer from calcium or protein deficiencies, which can lead to osteoporosis. A key way to help combat this is to ensure that residents consume plenty of milk, but this in itself can be hard.

Ensuring residents remain hydrated can also be problematic and ensuring they are drinking the right thing can be even more difficult, but there are a variety of ways that residents can be encouraged to remain hydrated, whilst increasing their calcium intake.

THE SOLUTION

Paul Honeker, head chef at Partridge House care home in Brighton really advocates the importance of milk in the diet of his residents, but also acknowledges that the taste on its own isn’t to everyone’s liking, So, has come up with some innovative solutions using Crusha Milkshake Mix to help ensure residents get the nutrients they need.

Using Crusha’s four delicious flavours, every morning Paul serves a range of milkshakes to his residents, fortifying them with dried full cream milk powder - doubling the protein content in a single glass of Crusha. Paul has created a milkshake to suit every palate, finishing with whipped cream for added visual appeal and further boosting calorie consumption for residents that struggle to maintain weight.

Paul Honeker says: “Crusha as a flavouring works great, I use it in jellies and cakes, as well as milkshakes for residents. Crusha’s Milkshake Mix is a favourite among our residents, whether it’s banana, chocolate or strawberry, they are full of flavour which is great for encouraging residents with smaller appetites to eat.

I also use the banana or strawberry mix to make a jelly, which can be layered into a sponge cake. This works really well for residents living with dementia, as the flavour is instantly recognisable and the colour makes it even more appealing.”

Crusha can be tailored to help meet the individual needs of residents by disguising the taste of unpalatable medicines or combined with a thickening agent to assist those with swallowing difficulties.

SERVING CRUSHA

Dr Mabel Blades Registered Dietitian and member of The Older Peoples Specialist Group of the British Dietetic Association has worked with Crusha to develop a range of easy to prepare, easy to serve milkshakes that help ease the challenges faced by care home caterers.

Mabel says: “We know that catering for care home residents isn’t as easy as serving three square meals a day, there has to be an element of adaptability and innovation to ensure residents’ needs are always catered for within the pressures of a busy kitchen. Our recipes can help ease the task faced by caterers and offer residents a great tasting drink”.

 

16580 Banana

 

 

 

91738 Chocolate

 

 

 

64433 Raspberry

 

 

 

25107 Strawberry