Delicious and nutritious: Employing multi-actor food co-design to define recipe specifications for community-dwelling older adults

Abstract

Healthy and tasty food choices are needed for the rapidly increasing demographic of older adults to promote healthy ageing and to prevent conditions such as malnutrition. This study aimed to design soup recipe specifications using an innovative combination of approaches and interactions with different stakeholders, notably culinary chefs, culinary students, scientific experts, and target consumers. These food products were designed to be adapted to healthy, community-living French adults, between 55 and 75 years. Importantly, including adults under 60 further explores their food priorities and acceptance for foods that can impact future health. In short, the employed co-design approach integrated scientific literature observations and recommendations, consumer survey responses (including modified Food Choice Questionnaire) and focus groups with food tasting with the participation of multiple actors (older adults, food science experts, and culinary chefs). In terms of results, a multi-constraint specification for chunky soups was created, highlighting key nutritional, sensorial, food oral processing, and culinary goals. This was then interpreted by a trained culinary chef, with soup ingredients and recipes tailored to multiple criteria specifications. Chunky soups are not commonly consumed by French older adults, however it was found to be appealing and acceptable by target consumers. This co-design approach integrates multiple constraints, offering a framework for developing food products tailored for long-term adoption among specific populations, such as older adults.