ELDORADO - Preventing malnourishment and promoting well-being in the elderly at home through personalised costeffective food and meal supply

Work Packages overview

ELDORADO is organised into five interlinked work packages (WPs):

• WP1 Food preferences and influence of changes in olfactory function and flavour
  memory on food acceptability
• WP2 Meal systems development
• WP3 Ethnographic observation and adaptability to IT tools for meal engagement
  
• WP4 Economic and environmental aspects for changing diet scenarios
• WP5 Administration, integration, communication and dissemination

WP 4 - Economic and environmental aspects for changing diet scenarios

Jørgen Dejgård Jensen is the leader of WP4 that includes five tasks with associated overall objectives:

Hypotheses:
1) Individual meals with high sensory satisfaction yield economic benefits to the
users and to society; 2) Individual meals with high sensory satisfaction provide environmental
benefits due to lower food waste; and 3) Economic optimization of supply chains for individualised
meals can enable supply at a relatively small cost increase.

Task 4.1. Costs and environmental impacts of different meal components. Based on data and
findings from previous research projects (e.g. OPUS, SensWell) and from the literature, meals
systems will be characterised in terms of costs, environmental impacts/cost. The findings serve as
inputs to Task 2.1.
Task 4.2. Economic supply chain model for individualized meal supplies to the elderly. An
economic model will be developed to represent economic aspects in separate stages in the supply
chain: meal preparation (coordinated with WP2) with focus on costs of ingredients and processing
costs (Jensen et al., 2012) and transportation/logistics focusing on the role of product diversity
and associated services in the minimization of transportation costs (M4.3), based on a
mathematical programming methodology (Jensen et al., 2013) and data from project partners
(e.g. Sub1.Copenhagen Food House) (M4.2).
Task 4.3. Prepare the specific environmental model for ELDORADO. Existing tool for Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) (Simapro and Stepwise) and databases established in previous projects will be
developed for assessment of environmental consequences of alternative strategies for meal supply
to the elderly, including e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, land use etc.)
Task 4.4. Estimate economic benefits of improved nutrition of the elderly (coordinated with WP3)
Modelling relationships between food intake and health/well-being, and economic benefits derived
therefrom, based on data from the literature and from the Danish elderly care sector (M4.5).
Task 4.5. Calculate environmental impact and associated socio-economic consequences. The LCA
tool developed in Task 4.2 will be used for calculating environmental impacts of alternative
strategies for meal supply to the elderly (coordinated with Task 4.3) – in physical as well as in
monetary units.

Outcome: The work package will yield important scientific and practical insights in the economic
incentives and barriers related to quality in the supply of welfare services, as well as the economic
and environmental impacts of improved quality in meal supplies in elderly home-care.

The ultimate goal of the project is to provide Danish municipalities with better knowledge and tools for optimising the acceptance of catered meals for elderly in home-care to prevent under-nutrition. Thus preparing them to become more effective for the greater demand on “meals-on-wheels” in the near future.

ELDORADO expects to deliver new knowledge on food acceptance in the elderly, tools for stimulating food intake and well-being as well as know-how on composing meals to achieve optimal consumption levels in the elderly to prevent under-nutrition. Over the project period three PhDs and four postdoctoral fellowships will be completed and 14 to 18 scientific papers with peerreview are expected. Research finding will be presented at national and international meetings while interim reports will be made available to the project group and participating municipalities. Interactions and exchanges with other national and international projects on elderly (including CALM and two Swedish projects) will be encouraged. Better food and practices to engage in eating of the elderly in home-care situations is expected to contribute to quality of life thus “life for years” not “years to life”. Understanding individual differences among elderly can further give inspiration to new actions within individualized health prevention and health promotion that will be more sustainable and economic achievable for Denmark.

Jørgen Dejgård Jensen