Closing the gap in patient nutrition with higher protein cakes
Healthcare News
Adequate nutrition is crucial to a patient’s recovery during hospitalisation. However, one of the current challenges in providing nutrition in hospital settings is ensuring patients have access to food that addresses their specialist dietary requirements while appealing to people who often lack appetite and want comforting and tasty food.
Here at Queensland Bakery, we have spent time in NHS trusts, researching and developing a range of dietitian-approved higher protein cakes that specifically meet the nutritional guidelines of the healthcare sector. With over five generations of baking expertise and the latest production facilities at our bakery in Hampshire, we are turning cakes into a nutritional force for good in healthcare.
To understand the most pressing patient nutritional needs, we examine the gap that we identified in current hospital settings to provide tasty foods and address the importance of our new range of higher protein cakes.
The gap between patients' needs for nutrition and the current offering
Poor food intake and malnutrition are significant risk factors for complications during hospital stays and contribute towards longer hospitalisation, increases in the likelihood of re-admission, and further health complications.
In a complex healthcare environment, it can be hard to identify and control patients’ individual dietary needs, leading to a risk of malnutrition. 
Our team of expert bakers work in partnership with BDA-approved dietitians. They regularly visit NHS trusts nationwide, talking to catering managers to understand the most significant challenges they face when addressing patients’ nutritional needs.
Through our research, we have examined every step of the process, from the needs of patients to what they receive in hospitals to combat malnutrition. We found that at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives, patients lack the simple pleasure of tasty foods that also meet their complex nutritional needs.
A common challenge is providing patients with foods that are high in protein but also look and taste good so that the patients want to eat them. Patients are often given supplements in milkshakes or powders within main meals that are not appealing and simply too large to be consumed by patients with little appetite.
Although specific groups of patients require specialised dietary requirements, it is widely accepted that protein intake for all patients is of particular importance due to its vital role in preventing loss of muscle mass, wound healing, making new cells and repairing old ones.
Instead of being given protein supplements in large milkshakes or main meals, what was required was a smaller portion that could be part of the patients’ supplements, replacing the need for the milkshakes, but that also tasted good and provided a nostalgic and comforting feeling to patients craving a bit of homely food with familiar flavours.
This led us to innovate our new range of exceptional higher protein cakes and desserts in delicious flavours that meet nutritional targets and provide the perfect pick-me-up for patients.
Examining the benefits of higher protein cakes in hospital patients’ diet
The two key parts to addressing the current gap in the provision of nutrition in hospitals are providing tasty, appealing foods and meeting the nutritional guidelines of the healthcare sector.
We’re turning cakes into a nutritional force for good in the healthcare setting to provide good, tasty nutrition, reduce operational complexity, reduce food waste and increase flexibility whilst aiding patient recovery.
A healthy adult needs approx. 1g of protein for each kilogram of body weight daily. Yet often, patients need to consume more than this to ensure they can fight infections, heal wounds and recover more quickly. In severe illnesses, protein requirements can be as high as 2g/kg body weight.
Patients must eat protein in every meal to consume the required amount, which is why supplements are often given when patients may be too ill to eat the required amount in meals.
Our new range of higher protein cakes has energy-dense portions with the required calorie levels. We wanted to ensure that our higher protein cakes contained enough protein and met the healthcare nutritional guidelines to replace the current supplements.
After our initial research stage in healthcare settings, we spent time working on the recipes, including the amount of protein that would meet the nutritional guidelines while also ensuring that the flavour of the cakes was still appealing so that patients would not be able to distinguish it from a standard dessert or snack.
Nutrition is only nutrition if it’s eaten, and we found that, in many instances, the supplements currently given to patients aren’t consumed. So, we aimed to create nutritious products that tasted like home, improving the patient experience and ensuring they were consumed as a whole to provide patients with the nutrition they need.
We took our new range back into the hospitals where we undertook our research, and the catering managers and dietitians who tried our higher protein cakes could not believe the amount of protein contained in them, as they looked and tasted like delicious cake.
Exploring innovative solutions to specialised dietary requirements of different patient groups
Our commitment to the healthcare sector doesn’t stop with our new higher protein range. During our research, we identified a significant gap in other areas of food provision to meet different nutritional needs, such as vegan products. So, alongside our new higher protein range, we are launching our first vegan range, including snacks for patients.
We are also innovating with new cakes and desserts that meet the specialised dietary needs of other patient groups. We recognise that the healthcare setting is a complex environment, and patients have their own individual dietary requirements. Our aim is to provide tasty, comforting cakes that meet nutritional guidelines to increase all patients’ experience and improve patient care.
We have been a family-owned bakery championing cakes for over 130 years. Our belief in cakes as a nutritional force for good in healthcare is behind our team’s passion to address the nutritional needs of patients in hospitals and provide them with tasty cakes that remind them of home. Contact us at Queensland Bakery today to find out more about our healthcare range.