Best and worst food in South Australian aged care homes revealed

Every aged care home in the state has been rated on its food by residents. See the food score for your aged care home.

Julie Cross and Annabel Fleming

4 min read

March 18, 2024 - 10:23AM

News Corp Australia Network

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A resident at an Adelaide aged care home spends $100 a week on Uber Eats because he can’t stomach the food.

The 68-year-old, who we are not naming, complained that most of the fruit and veggies are either processed or tinned.

“Vegetables have been usually boiled to the max and are tasteless and bland,” he said.

“Any form of fruit salad is from a tin, never any kind of quality fresh fruit.”

He said the menu reads well, but it rarely matches the food delivered.

“The amount of money I spend on UberEats is ridiculous, just to eat reasonably,” said the resident, who is in a home that came mid-table in a national residents’ survey.

Supplied images of meals being served at an Adelaide aged care centre.

“The majority of residents here have dementia and sadly family members don’t know,” he said. “Data won’t tell you the truth.”

It comes as up to 20 per cent, or more than 37,000 aged care residents across Australia, were asked the question, ‘Do you like the food here?’ by an independent team on behalf of the federal government.

The answers were collected last year, but only published in full last week.

The residents’ experience survey results are important because they carry a 33 per cent weighting towards the overall Star Ratings score for each home.

At the state’s worst rated home for food, residents chose to miss meals, rather than eat the “monotonous, uninteresting and tasteless” food on offer, an inspection found last year.

ACH Group Residential Care – West Park has the lowest food score in the state. Supplied

Despite the watchdog finding ACH Group Residential Care – West Park compliant on a second follow up visit in July, it was given the lowest rating by residents of any facility in the state for 2023.

At ACH’s West park home eight in 10 of those surveyed only liked the food sometimes.

At the second lowest rated home in South Australia, St Basil’s Aegean Village, 13 per cent of those surveyed said they never liked the food, while 47 per cent said they only liked it sometimes.

ACH Group refused to comment on the residents’ survey results.

St Basil’s Homes (SA) Corporate Services CEO Michelle Church said the survey shows while their other homes performed well, the Aegean Village’s results were “disappointing”.

“We have not met our usual high expectations at one of our sites, something we were aware of at the time of the survey and have already taken positive steps to improve the situation at the Aegean Village,” Ms Church said.

She said among the changes are regular resident food tasting experiences to receive feedback on planned menu changes.

“Our recent internal data is far more positive and I’m confident with these new initiatives, that we are on the right track to significantly improve these results in the next formal resident food survey,” Ms Church said.

Exterior of part of the facility. Helping Hand, North Adelaide is Adelaide's highest rate home for its food, according to residents. Photo Sam Wundke.

Helping Hand Aged Care – Doreen Bond House in North Adelaide got the state’s top food score.

Dietitian Dr Cherie Hugo from the Lantern Alliance goes into aged care homes to help improve the food experience.

She said sometimes it’s not about how much you spend, or how fancy it looks, but it’s about serving food people want or are familiar with and making the dining experience enjoyable. Having the TV on loud, or people being given their medication during their meal, can really ruin the moment.

In one facility she worked with, changes saw half of residents with long term malnutrition, reversed.

Dr Cherie Hugo Photo: Kit Wise Harvey Norman Gold Coast Women of the Year 2020

“Food is the foundation of most of the woes in aged care,” Dr Hugo said.

“We want more food in the bellies and less in the bin.”

Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission received around 750 food complaints via a hotline and their website or email, between late July and March 1, and in most cases providers addressed the identified problem without further action needed.

The Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline 1800 844 044.

AND ONE OF THE BEST

Food is the hottest topic of conversation at this aged care home with “what’s on the menu” the most popular item on the agenda at the monthly residents’ consultation meeting.

“We know if we can get the food right, then we are going to get everything else right,” Katerina Kouris, manager of The Greek Community Home For The Aged said.

“We don’t have weight loss here, unless someone is unwell. People actually come in and gain weight.”

The yummy food at the Greek Community Home For The Aged in Earlwood. Chef Panayiotis Giannakopoulos with resident Adele Koutsoukos (right). Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The cakes are popular at the Greek Community Home For The Aged in Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

She said the home caters for their residents’ tastes – and they want Greek food.

Chef Panayaiotis Giannakopoulos serves up dishes such as fish and horta vrasta and pork with lettuce and white egg lemon sauce – favourites with the centre’s 48 Greek residents.

Ms Kouris said the dining room is light and airy with a pretty outlook and a beautiful picture of Greece on the wall.

“It’s all very Greek and the aroma of the food in the dining room is always delicious,” she said.

The Sydney home was the 21st highest rated facility in the country. Seven out of 10 residents said they “always” liked the food, while the rest liked it “most of the time”.