Meal Vision is transformational Healthcare Product Innovation, that gives centres access to the data they need to fight malnutrition and care for residents in aged care.

In Australia and around the world, the way we care for the needs of elderly people in aged care needs transforming.

68% percent of aged care residents in Australia are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition, placing them at higher risk of illness and declining health.

This idea, finds new ways to find data, understand the data, and then apply that data to improve the quality of life before malnutrition occurs.

The way we care for the needs of elderly people in aged care needs transforming.

A 2021 study by the Royal Commission of Aged Care Quality & Safety in Australia found that 68% percent of aged care residents are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

The consequences of poor nutrition are significant and often irreversible for older people. Malnutrition is an associated cause of health risks including an increased incidence of falls and fractures, increased time for pressure injuries to heal, and increased risk of infection.

Malnutrition in these facilities is primarily driven by legacy group service processes, meaning residents are served meals that do not meet their individual preferences or requirements.

Compass Group, a worldwide provider of food services, supplies over 71 million meals each year to aged care facilities, set out to tackle this critical challenge.

Historically, there was no evidenced based information for nutrition consumption analysis. What analysis was done, was purely manual and only at a group level, meaning there was no intelligence on what each individual resident ate.

Essentially, there’s never been access to the data required.

The best solution would be to give every elderly person a personal nutritionist, to analyse what, when and how they are eating… every mealtime… to track specific trends in their diets over time so they can tailor meals for optimal nutrition and wellbeing. So we did just that.

Meal Vision. Ai Assisted Food Scanning and Meal Planning Technology.

A first of its kind, cloud-based offering which monitors the food consumption of aged care residents, Meal Vision uses data to alert staff to residents who are at a risk of malnutrition, thereby highlighting issues before they progress.

The first step to understanding individual nutrition is understanding consumption, therefore we had to create a way to understand what each individual was being served, the nutritional value of that food, and then what portion of each meal was actually consumed.

Now with Meal Vision, resident consumption is accessible to staff on Tableau dashboards displaying: total % consumed by meal, total % consumed by food item, 7-day average consumption and a ranking of the resident’s appetite over time. This data can be compared to other residents.

This detailed data allows staff to create a clear picture of resident food consumption and alerts them to risk of malnutrition, highlighting issues before they progress.

Resident meal preferences are also made available to culinary teams for greater meal personalisation.

And, this data is also accessible to resident’s families so they can have peace of mind their loved one is receiving the best care.

Meal Vision features two components: the Meal Vision Scanning Unit and the Meal Vision Ai Platform.

The Scanning Unit is equipped with features including a high-resolution camera, radio frequency identification, and the LiDAR scanner for measuring the food. The data captured by the unit is then fed to the Meal Vision AI Platform hosted on the AWS Cloud, to track consumption.

First, the unit detects which resident the plate belongs to using an RFID tag attached to each plate. The camera then scans the plate to identify the food and calculate its volumes. These figures are then sent to the cloud for prediction. After eating, the same procedure is repeated. The data is compared and stored in a Data Mart, which is connected to a Tableau dashboard displaying the results.

The Tableau dashboard is analysed by Compass Group staff in real-time to monitor the consumption intake of the residents.

50 Meal Vision units have been built since launch, operating in dozens of serveries, catering to hundreds of residents. It is drastically improving the lives and health of the elderly, while also bringing peace of mind to their families.

Key impacts include:

1) Mitigating the risk of malnutrition.

The solution flags food consumption-related warnings, so that Compass Group staff can immediately action the appropriate steps to mitigate risk. These may include enhanced supervision and encouragement at mealtimes, serving dishes that are most popular, and customised meal plans.

2) Assuring families that their loved ones are maintaining a nutritious diet.

Tableau dashboard generates reports, backed by data points, to indicate how family members are consuming food and what their food intake preferences are.

3) Reducing food wastage.

Through analysis of food consumption data, Compass Group staff are able to design more favourable meal plans, allowing them to significantly reduce food waste.

The Royal Commission of Aged Care Quality & Safety in Australia 2021, handed down an extensive list of recommendations for industry transformation. As of 2023, part of the assessment and planning for each resident requires providers to regularly re-assesses each older person’s nutrition, hydration and dining needs and preferences. The assessment must consider:

- what the older person likes to eat and drink

- when the older person likes to eat and drink

- what makes a positive dining experience for the older person

- the older person’s individual and nutritional needs

- issues that impact the older person’s ability to eat and drink.

Meal Vision can play a critical role in enabling the entire sector to achieve these new standards.