Abstract:
Nowadays, the proportion and number of elderly people in Thailand are constantly increasing. Having the proper nutrients is essential to maintain good health in elderly. Moreover, proper and enough nutrition can reduce the incidence of chronic disease and support the elderly to perform normal activities in daily life. However, the elderly often suffer from malnutrition or inadequate nutrition resulting in deterioration of health, decline of physical and mental performance, and increase the mortality rate. Therefore, it is imperative that the pharmaceutical and food industry should realize and recognize the importance of producing suitable and sufficient medical food for the elderly to prepare for an aging society. Protein is a macronutrient that seniors are often deficient in, as seniors tend to consume less protein food due to it being difficult to chew and digest. Most commercially available medical food products use whey as a protein source. This is because whey provides high protein and it is water soluble. Whey protein is extracted from milk by product; therefore, there is a group of Thai populations who cannot consume milk protein due to lactose indigestion and the lactose indigestion condition gets worse in elderly. For this reason, the research team together with the private sector were interested in developing medical food products that use plant nutrients using pea as a protein source to increase choice for elderly consumers. In addition, it also creates product differentiation and commercial competitiveness. This also responds to the growing popularity of plant-based diets around the world. The objective of this research was to develop recipes and medical food production processes for the elderly. The formulated and prepared elderly food products were evaluated in terms of product satisfaction in elderly volunteers under the assessment topics of texture and taste (Reviewed and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee Burapha University (HS061/2020)). From the experimental results, it was found that the food formula was suitable to manufacture considering the properties such as water solubility, rheology, stability, texture and taste. Appropriate viscosity of the product was adjusted for the elderly to swallow easily and prevent aspiration. Three optimized formulas (E1, E2 and E3) were selected for the product satisfaction evaluation. The main ingredients in the formula are barley, red rice, maltodextrin, pea protein (Lantau), FF inulin, MCT powder 50, premix mineral, premix vitamin, driphorm, sucrose, stevia, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), and chocolate or vanilla flavors.
The product satisfaction evaluation was conducted 45 healthy volunteers aged 50-70 years. The available commercial food product for elderly was selected and tested for comparison purpose. Paired student t-test statistics were to monitor significant differences. The result found that the formula E1 received a satisfaction score. Overall satisfaction and the most accepted products were 78.79%, followed by formulas E2, E4 (market products) and E3 at 72.73%, 60.61 and 45.45%, respectively. This can conclude that E1 elderly food formulation has good properties. And it was accepted by the participants in the satisfaction assessment. Moreover, the cost is not higher than the available commercial products imported from abroad. Consequently, it should be tested for production at the pilot scale to confirm the feasibility of the technology to the actual production by the private sector who participated in this research. This product will be an alternative health product for the elderly or those who are concerned with the health of all ages of Thai people.