The Commission and the Department of Health and Aged Care are committed to supporting improvements to food, nutrition and dining in aged care. We are collaborating to deliver a free national Menu and Mealtime Review Program for residential aged care services over 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years.
This program offers providers an opportunity to prepare for the introduction of the new Standard 6: Food and nutrition of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. The food and nutrition standard, which comes into effect on 1 July 2025, is about working with older people to find out what they like to eat and drink. The Standard includes an expectation of a regular review of menus and mealtime service.
Expressions of interest to take part in the third round are now open (click below to express your interest) and close on 9 June 2025.
In rounds one and two, we received many nominations and reviews are underway. Feedback from participating services tells us that providers find the review and recommendations helpful. They have said they value this external expert support.
About the program
Up to 500 residential aged care services can receive a menu and mealtime review in the financial year 2025/26.
These services will be supported with expert assessment and recommendations from Accredited Practising Dietitians. This will include feedback and recommendations specific to each service.
- Completely free and confidential
- Conducted on-site by an Accredited Practising Dietitian
- Customised feedback and recommendations
The on-site menu and mealtime review provided by the Accredited Practising Dietitian will include:
- introductory meetings with management staff
- evaluation of the menu
- assessment of the dining environment and mealtime experience including how well it supports residents to eat and drink safely and happily (enjoyment)
- review of documents describing delivery of good food, nutrition and dining
- a written report and feedback meeting to support continuous improvement.
The Commission does not get a copy of the menu and mealtime review report. The report is confidential to the provider, the residential aged care service and the assessing dietitian.
A short summary report will be completed by the attending Accredited Practising Dietitian and provided to the Department of Health and Aged Care to be used for policy development purposes only.
The residential aged care service will be invited to participate in a brief online survey offered by the Commission about their experience of the review to assist in program evaluation. Services can choose to do so anonymously.
Eligibility for this program is limited to residential aged care services. That includes National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program and multipurpose services.
Participation will be prioritised for:
- aged care services in small rural towns, remote communities and very remote communities
- residential services under the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program
- small providers that have 1-2 services and medium providers that have 3-10 services
- smaller services (with 60 or less residents)
- services with a score lower than 3 on the Residents’ Experience Survey question, ‘Do you like the food here?’
Click here to express your interest for the 2025/26 financial year.
Providers who applied will be notified on the outcome of their application via email by the end of July 2025.
Enquiries about the program
For further enquiries about the Menu and Mealtime Review Program please contact us via:
- info@agedcarequality.gov.au (using subject ‘Menu and mealtime review program enquiry’)
- call the Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline on 1800 844 044 (9am to 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday).
The Menu and Mealtime Review Program is fully funded by the government. The reviews are free of charge to participating residential aged care services.
All menu and mealtime review reports will remain confidential to the provider, the residential aged care service and the assessing dietitian. The Commission does not receive copies of these reports. The dietitian will submit a short summary report to the Department of Health and Aged Care to be used for policy development purposes only.
The Menu and Mealtime Review Program is one of the Australian Government’s initiatives that aims to support providers to deliver great food, nutrition, and dining experiences in residential aged care services. The reviews are provided by an independent accredited practising dietitian. They are not dietitians from the Commission’s Food, Nutrition and Dining Advisory Support Unit.
The Menu and Mealtime Review Program is not a regulatory activity. It is different from the Commission’s targeted assessment contacts program, which is a regulatory activity undertaken by the Commission. To find out more information about how the Commission monitors food, nutrition and dining at residential aged care services, visit our targeted assessment contacts program webpage.
Some providers may already have professional dietetic services in place at their residential services, but if they wish, they can still nominate to participate in this program by submitting an Expression of Interest.
No. The Department of Health and Aged Care ran an open-market Request for Proposal through AusTender and entered a contract with Plena Healthcare last year. Under the contract, independent accredited practising dietitians from Plena Healthcare will conduct these menu and mealtime reviews at participating residential aged care services.
To ensure that any potential conflicts of interest are effectively managed, and to avoid any potential bias, or the perception of bias, Plena uses dietitians that are independent of the service to undertake the review. That is, the dietitians who do not ordinarily work at the service.
