In Thailand, as in many other places in the world, people are living longer than ever and public and private bodies have been forced to rise to the challenge of caring for this greying population. Focus, though, is almost always on social and economic issues, health care and improvements to the home suited to those of advanced years yet no one apparently has given any thought to an essential seniors cannot live without – food.

While many older people can and do go on eating the rice-based dishes with which they have grown up, others have difficulties masticating or swallowing. Even those in perfect health will find their sensory taste buds changing as the years go on.

Perhaps because these changes seem as natural as developing grey hair, we don’t recognise them as a problem and thus fail to make provision for them. And so while other countries with ageing populations like Japan have developed a variety of products for seniors that are easily available in shops and supermarkets, Thailand is only now starting to give this issue the attention it deserves.

The project to develop healthy food products for old people – Smart Food – was launched earlier this year by the National Science and Technology Development Agency’s Innovation and Technology Assistant Programme (ITAP). It brings together scientists, researchers from universities as well as members of the private sector who are interested in food-for-seniors products to work on alimentation essential to the ageing population.

“We can’t wait any longer to work on the project. Our greying population is on the rise and so we must study and learn to provide the proper foods for them. This is a form of preventive medicine and will save our spending on medication in the future,” says Dr Anuwat Jangchud of Kasetsart University’s agro-industry faculty.

“Also by starting now, we are helping businesses interested in this senior foods industry to have a better understanding of the products we need and thus be able to compete on the market.”

Because Thailand has never studied food specifically for the elderly, the project is starting at the beginning and working on the science of nutrition, the ingredients, product development as well as any criteria that might in the future help us all to choose the right products.

Specialised products in Japan show levels of masticating on the product package allowing customers can choose the one most appropriate to themselves.

“The regulations and measurements are standardised and are clear enough that even customers can use them to understand their ability to masticate. We intend working on all those aspects too,” he says.

Thailand officially entered the ageing society back in 2005, when 10 per cent of the population was made up of people aged 60 and over. By 2014, that figure had risen to 14 per cent and is expected to reach about 27 per cent in 2050.

Difficulty in chewing and swallowing often leads to under-nutrition and to dehydration in older people. Indeed, when normal changes in swallowing are exacerbated by dysphagia, the elderly may experience poor nutritional status and dehydration, loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss,

as well as the very real possibility of food entering the airway and leading to aspiration pneumonia.

While the Smart Food project was discussed earlier, it formally got underway at the Medicare Foods Expo in Japan in January, after which interested parties attended a seminar in Bangkok. Guidelines for senior foods products were then formulated, which included nutritional requirements as well as types of food considered suitable, then the ITAP invited the Thailand Creative and Design Centre to organise a workshop to help stimulate ideas and lead to the development of prototype products.

Having issued a broad call to small and medium entrepreneurs interested in developing senior foods products, the project then selected 12 SMEs to join the workshops with scientists and design consultants to determine the fundamental concept of seniors’ food.

The R&D project is slated to run for eight to 12 months with product prototypes submitted between April to next July. The ITAP expects to have at least 25 Smart Food products in the market within three years.

“I like the project approach that is letting us start from zero rather than giving us a list of food dishes and asking us to develop the idea. I proposed a few dishes right at the off but they said to put them to one side,” says Nithikorn Chokanan, managing director of the SME Health Me.

Those who have joined the project are also bringing their own experiences of dealing with elderly relatives, providing a broader view of what these older Thais can eat and, equally importantly, what they might like to eat.

Nithikorn, who takes care of his parents, says he’s focusing on snacks and eat-on-the-go foods that old people can eat when they go out. These will be designed to soften in the mouth making them easy to swallow.

But while soft food and semi-liquids are good, old people, Dr Anuwat points out, don’t want to live on congee, porridge, soup, fish and chicken meat.

“The food we give to our seniors food should be the regular cuisine they’ve eaten all their lives but with added ingredients to ensure the right nutrition and prepared using cooking techniques that allow for mastication and swallowing.

“Also labelling a food product ‘for old people’ doesn’t work in terms of business because people will walk away from it. Many people don’t accept that they are old. Food for seniors should rather be marketed as healthy food products with senior food elements inside,” he says.

“The challenge is how to make the elderly happy about their daily diets.”