Novel technologies to produce nutritious texture-modified foods for elderly: Advances, challenges and applications

The human population is undergoing rapid aging and posing a significant societal challenge. Aging impacts the digestion of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc., and adversely affects the absorption and metabolism of nutrients. Thus, it is imperative to explore new technologies or enhance traditional food processing methods to create foods that address the dietary needs of the elderly and are easy to swallow.

This paper compares the physiological differences between the elderly and adults, emphasizing the importance of developing food products tailored to the needs of the elderly. It systematically evaluates the advantages and limitations of new technologies used for softening of foods (e.g., enzymatic softening, a combination of enzymes with reduced pressure, and freezing-thawing), preparing soft gel particles (e.g., freeze spray drying, electrostatic spray drying, and nano spray drying technology), and additive manufacturing (3D printing). These technologies are explored for their potential in altering texture and facilitating easy digestion of food. This review compiles and analyzes recent information relevant to the production of foods for the elderly, taking into account their physiological state and dietary needs.

New processing technologies can be used to produce soft-textured foods with adequate nutrition density to meet the physiological and nutritional needs of the elderly population. However, there are major challenges in scaling up the production of elderly foods for industrial production. In the future, the unique features of computer-aided manufacturing and 3D printing could be harnessed to produce personalized foods for the elderly.