Making care home food better

Making care home food better

Author: BBC World Service August 21, 2025 Duration: 26:28

The quality of food in care homes for the elderly can be underwhelming. Ruth Alexander talks to the people highlighting the issue and finding ways to bring nutrition and comfort back on the menu.

Dr Lisa Portner, a medical doctor and researcher at the Berlin Institute of Health at Charite, outlines the inadequate diet offered by three nursing homes she studied in Germany.

Australian restaurateur and food writer Maggie Beer tells how she came to set up the Maggie Beer Foundation, which aims to research the issues, raise awareness and offer culinary training.

Ronald Marshall explains the simple ways he found to help carers understand the food preferences of his mum, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2020.

And Navjot Gill-Chawla recounts the conversations she had with South-Asian Canadians living with dementia and their families, as a PhD Candidate in Public Health at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. When the subject of care homes came up, she says food was uppermost in their minds.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

And if you'd like to try Maggie's brownie recipe featured in the show, you can find it in full on our website.

Producer: Beatrice Pickup

(Photo: Two cooks in a care home kitchen are smiling as they prepare a tray of brigh orange roast pumpkin. Credit: Sam Kroepsch)


There’s a story behind every meal, and The Food Chain from the BBC World Service goes out to find it. This isn’t just a series about recipes or restaurant reviews; it’s a deep and often surprising exploration of how food shapes our world. Each episode follows a single thread, whether it’s the economic forces that decide what grows in a field, the hidden science in your kitchen, or the profound cultural traditions carried in a family dish. You’ll hear from farmers, chefs, economists, historians, and scientists, all contributing pieces to a larger picture about our global relationship with what we eat. The conversations reveal the complex journey from source to table, unpacking the labor, innovation, and sometimes the controversy, involved in feeding communities. Tuning into this podcast feels like joining a well-reported global conversation, one that changes how you think about the next thing you’ll eat. It connects the personal act of eating to vast systems of business, culture, and science, making the everyday subject of food endlessly fascinating.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Food Chain
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