Comparison of different methods of heating centrally prepared meals

Bodil Allesen-Holm, Judith Henning, Per Møller
Department of Food Science, The Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
 bhahlife.ku.dk

Many elderly or institutionalized people eat meals prepared centrally.  It is important to devise routines that optimize the quality of these meals. More pleasant meals could potentially alleviate the rather severe under- and mal-nutrition problems in this group.

Materials and methods
Here we compare two ways of preparing meals:
1) meal kept warm in a styrene box for 3 hours before consumption.
2) meal prepared and cooled and reheated by the consumer in a microwave oven (500W for 5 minutes).
A group of 40 people, 19 males and 21 females, 65-90 years of age, evaluated two identical meals consisting of sliced roasted beef, boiled potatoes, boiled vegetables, and gravy. Subjects were provided a fixed meal and were offered extra helpings of the 4 ingredients. On different days, the two meals were evaluated on appearance and  sensory attributes and total portion size of the 4 ingredients was recorded. Subjects also rated how much they would pay for the meal they had just eaten.

Results
For intake we find a significant difference for sauce (ANOVA, p<0,0001; 0.5dL larger intake in meal2) but no significant differences for the other ingredients. Meat in meal2 is rated significantly higher (meat taste (p<0,0390), tenderness (p<0,0001)) than in meal1. The various attributes for vegetables (crispiness, taste, sogginess) and for sauce (consistency,  mealiness, lumpiness, taste) revealed no significant differences between the two meals, but potatoes in meal 2) were more mealy (p<0,0091) and less firm (p<0,0428) than in meal1. WOF and economic value did not differ between the two meals.

Conclusions
Both intake and quality was as good or better for the microwave heated meals as for the meal kept warm in a box. This, and the higher flexibility made possible by  microwave heating, support  introduction of this method when catering for larger groups of elderly people.