From Menu to Mealtimes: How Pro40 Supports Better Nutrition for Older Australians
Good nutrition goes beyond menu planning; it’s about ensuring every consumer receives the nutrients they need to maintain their health, wellbeing and quality of life. For older Australians living in residential aged care, food plays an important role in maintaining strength, supporting bone health, promoting wellbeing and preserving quality of life. Aged care providers must therefore consider individual dietary requirements, nutritional value of meals provided and quality mealtime experience.
The new strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards commenced on the 1st November 2025 with Standard 6: Food and Nutrition ensuring a clear focus on providing nourishing food and fluids, assessing consumers' nutritional needs and addressing individual preferences. Standard 5 also plays an important role in identifying and responding to clinical risks such as malnutrition and dehydration.
Important nutrients to consider
As people age, their nutritional needs and eating habits can change. Food intake can be affected by many factors including reduced appetite, medical conditions, medication side effects, dental problems and swallowing difficulties. This highlights the importance of regular nutrition monitoring with the addition of careful menu planning. Three important nutrients to consider when reviewing aged care menus include protein, calcium and fibre.
Protein: Supports strength and independence
Protein helps maintain muscle mass, support recovery and contributes to overall physical function. Inadequate protein and energy intake can increase the risk of malnutrition, loss of lean muscle mass and frailty.
Aged care menus should offer a variety of protein-rich foods throughout the day, including eggs, fish, lean meat, dairy products, tofu, beans and lentils. Nourishing snacks including yoghurt, cheese, custard and fortified milk drinks can also help consumers meet their individual requirements.
To ensure adequate protein intake, protein should be distributed evenly across breakfast, lunch, dinner and midmeal snacks rather than concentrated in a single meal. Each main meal should aim to provide 25-30 g of protein to support muscle protein synthesis, with a daily target of roughly 90g or approximately 1.2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, depending on individual nutritional requirements.
Pro40 can help aged care providers meet the nutritional requirements of the new Aged Care
Standards, with a single 52g serve providing 21g of complete protein, containing all essential
amino acids to support muscle maintenance and recovery.
Calcium: Supporting bone health
Calcium is essential for maintaining healthy bones and teeth. Ensuring adequate calcium intake is particularly important for older people, who may be at increased risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Calcium rich food choices include milk, yoghurt, cheese and calcium-fortified alternatives. Calcium rich ingredients can also be incorporated into meals, snacks and desserts to support adequate calcium intake. Main meals and midmeals should collectively provide the opportunity to meet the recommended dietary intake (RDI) of 1,300 mg of calcium per day for adults over 65 years of age.
When planning or reviewing menus, it is essential to consider portion sizes, the nutritional content of alternative foods, and whether consumers who avoid dairy due to allergies or intolerances can meet their individual calcium requirements.
Pro40 supports older Australians’ health and helps aged care providers meet the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, with each 52 g serve providing 380 mg of calcium to support bone health and daily calcium requirement
§ One 40g serve of Pro40 in water provides 292mg Calcium, or 22.5% of the recommended daily intake
§ If added to 100ml of milk, it provides 409mg of calcium, or 31.5% of the recommended daily intake.
Fibre: Supporting digestive health
Fibre supports healthy bowel function and can help prevent constipation when combined with adequate fluid intake and appropriate physical activity. Good sources of fibre include wholegrain breads and cereals, vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts and seeds where suitable. Offering a variety of these foods throughout the day can help consumers achieve a varied and balanced diet.
The menu should provide sufficient opportunities for consumers to achieve the recommended
daily dietary fibre intake of 25–30g.
Making every mouthful count
Working with an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) can help aged care providers assess the nutritional adequacy of their menus and identify opportunities to optimise protein, calcium, fibre and overall energy intake to support consumers' nutritional needs and meet the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
A variety of meals, snacks and desserts, including texture-modified options, can be fortified with Pro40 powder to enhance their nutritional value without significantly increasing food volume. This provides an opportunity to deliver additional protein and calcium through familiar foods, helping consumers make every mouthful count.