Introduction to Nutrient Goal Standard

Patients in hospitals typically order their meals from a standard menu that's designed to cater to a diverse group of patients.

The Nutrient Goal Standard includes three components:

• Nutrient goals
• Nutrient actions
• Rationale

Nutrient goals

A nutrient goal is the amount of the specified nutrient that a patient should receive when choosing a selection of food from the standard menu.

Since the patient cohort is diverse, nutritional needs aren't the same for everyone. To make sure menus are designed to meet the needs of most patients the nutrient goals are generally the upper reference value of the Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand.

Not all nutrients have goals listed in the Nutrient Goal Standards. Nutrients listed are those that are important for hospitalised patients. If menus are designed to meet the listed nutrient goals, it's likely that other essential nutrient requirements, like thiamin, vitamin A, magnesium or potassium, will also be provided.

Patients should be able to select and consume foods to meet the nutrient goals from a standard hospital menu by choosing a variety of foods over the course of a day or week.

Choosing foods that are varied and meet the nutrient goals helps prevent malnutrition and other healthcare-associated complications that can happen when people are in hospital. It also supports patients in making choices for managing chronic diseases.

A standard hospital menu should be designed so patients can meet:

• protein and energy nutrient goals daily
• other macronutrient and micronutrient goals when averaged across a seven-day period.

Nutrient actions

Nutrient actions are recommendations that if followed, will create a menu that meets the nutrient goals. They should be followed when designing a menu unless there is a good reason not to incorporate them, which should be recorded.

Where the nutrient actions are not used when planning the menu, you need to do a detailed nutritional analysis to make sure the menu still meets the nutrient goals.

The nutrient actions can also be used as a guide to check that your menu meets the nutrient goals, especially where it is not feasible to do a detailed nutritional analysis.

Rationale

The rationale is there to explain why there might be differences or special things to think about when setting the targets for nutrient goals. It also tells you the important factors that were taken into account when creating the nutrient actions.

Assessing your menu

When you're checking if a menu meets the nutrient goals, the goal is for the menu to match the criteria in the nutrient goals and nutrient actions columns.

If the people you're serving (your patient cohort) have specific nutritional needs that are not aligned with the Nutrition Standards, you should create a menu that meets their needs and document the reason that this is different to the standards. Make sure that you're still meeting the overall nutrient goal.

Paediatric considerations

Healthcare facilities need to offer food that's suitable for different ages and the specific stages of growth and development.

When it comes to children, the menus are planned to match both their age and their stage of development. It's important to remember that children can vary in how they reach developmental milestones, so the choice of diet and menu should be based more on what's right for a child's development rather than just their age. For example, a child aged 1-3 years might need a food texture from the age 7-12 months diet.

Paediatric patients may have trouble feeding themselves while unwell, even if they usually can. It’s important to offer them foods that they can eat, which might include a variety of textures and be nutrient dense.

See Textures, serve sizes and food sources for the different stages of development and what kind of food is needed at each stage.

See Paediatric age-appropriate diets for diets by age group.