The aged care sector - a $23.6 billion industry in Australia - is currently facing the growing risk of severe malnutrition amongst its elderly residents.

A 2021 study by the Royal Commission of Aged Care Quality & Safety says the risk of malnutrition is at a staggering 68%. This issue has a significant impact on the wellbeing of the elderly, including a higher risk of illness, slower recovery time and decline in overall health.

Families sending their loved ones to aged care facilities are faced with the devastation of these risks, despite paying up to $21,000AUD per year. On top of this, residents are served meals that do not meet their tracked preferences, leading to large quantities of food wastage. Unfortunately, tracking food consumption to uphold quality standards at this scale has historically been widely complex and difficult to achieve.

The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which was established in 2018, has far-reaching implications for the aged care sector in Australia. The commission's findings include recommendations reform the aged care sector including quality nutrition and care standards, and transparency measures.

As a supplied to the Aged Care industry, Compass Group are proactively working to support the improvement of facility care and nutrition.

Compass Group Australia, the global food and support services company, is leveraging the power of AI to develop a solution creating Meal Vision. A first-of-its-kind, cloud-based Computer Vision offering that monitors the food consumption of aged care residents.

At the heart of Meal Vision there are two components – the Meal Vision Scanning Unit and the Meal Vision AI Platform. The MealVision Scanning Unit is responsible for gathering data and is equipped with features including a high-resolution camera, radio frequency identification, and, most importantly, the LiDAR scanner for measuring the food. The data is then fed to the MealVision AI Platform hosted on the AWS Cloud, to track consumption.

Meal vision includes 4 key components as part of its data solution:

1) Residents’ plates are scanned before and after meal service to calculate exactly their food consumption.

2) Resident appetite and consumption are fed into an AWS cloud-based AI platform that tracks and analyses consumption over time to identify where deficiencies in the resident’s diet exist. And identifying residents that require adjustments to their meals.

3) Resident’s consumption is accessible to staff on live dashboards displaying consumption volumes by time of day, meal type, item and ranking the resident’s appetite. This detailed data set alerts staff to those who are at a risk of malnutrition, thereby highlighting issues before they progress.

4) Each resident’s data is accessible to their families so they can have peace of mind.

Meal Vision works through two elements - food scanning and AI technology.

Food scanner:

The unit detects which resident the plate belongs to using the RFID tag attached to the plate. The unit’s camera then scans the plate to identify the food and calculate its volume. These figures are sent to the cloud-based AI model for prediction. Once the resident returns the plate 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.

AI unit:

The Tableau dashboard is analysed by Compass Group staff in real-time to monitor the consumption intake of the residents. They track the total percentage consumed and food categories to discover the most popular menu items, and patterns in the residents’ behaviours and identify which residents require adjustments in their meals.

With over 50 units built and operating, Meal Vision has already begun to transform nutrition and quality of life through:

1) Mitigating the risk of malnutrition

The solution flags food consumption-related warnings, so that staff can immediately 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

Families are given peace of mind, with reports and data points that demonstrate their loved ones are well taken care of and are receiving the sustenance necessary to live an enjoyable life.

3) Reducing food

Through analysis of food consumption data, Compass Group staff design more favorable meal plans, allowing them to significantly reduce food waste. Culinary teams can modify their dishes based on the popularity of food items to design