Last updated on June 15th, 2023
About 10.8% of adults in the United States have food allergies, which means it’s likely that some residents in your healthcare community have a food allergy or intolerance. Ensuring that your dining program can accommodate these residents is essential.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services use F-Tags during inspections to guarantee that senior living communities across the country are providing safe, quality care to their residents.
F-Tag 806 gives guidance around providing safe care to residents with food allergies, intolerances, or preferences.
The tag states that “facilities should be aware of each resident’s allergies, intolerances, and preferences, and provide an appropriate alternative. A food substitute should be consistent with the usual and/or ordinary food items provided by the facility. For example, the facility may, instead of grapefruit juice, substitute another citrus juice or vitamin C-rich juice the resident likes.”
Why is F-806 important?
Food allergies are a big issue for seniors. As humans age, so do their immune systems, putting older adults at a higher risk of food allergies. Some of the most common foods that cause allergic reactions in seniors include fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, and shellfish.
Food intolerances are different from allergies, but your community should still be mindful of them to comply with the F-806 tag. An allergy is the immune system’s response to a food, while an intolerance is a digestive system response that happens when someone can’t properly digest whatever they ate. Lactose intolerance is one of the most common food intolerances.
Tag F-806 also protects residents with cultural and religious beliefs that prevent them from eating certain foods. Some residents may require Kosher, Halal, completely vegetarian meals, or they may generally prefer the foods they grew up with rather than typical American dishes.
How To Comply With the F-806 Tag
When evaluating your community for F-806 compliance, a surveyor will observe your meal services. If a resident appears to refuse food or drink items, the surveyor will determine if they are offered the opportunity to receive substitutes.
They also may ask your community’s residents and staff questions like:
- How does the food meet their preferences, allergies, and/or intolerances?
- Are you offered substitutes if you refuse food or drink?
- How are alternate food choices communicated to the residents?
- How are food textures, allergies, intolerances, and preferences accommodated per a resident’s assessment, care plan, and choice, and how is this information communicated to staff?
Evaluate your current policies and procedures to ensure you’re doing everything you can to accommodate residents with specific allergies, intolerances, and preferences. For example, how does your community develop a comprehensive care plan for each resident’s needs, and how is that care plan typically reviewed and revised by appropriate staff? How are these plans implemented?
How to Support Residents With Allergies, Intolerances, and Preferences
When a resident comes to your community, your team will most likely ask them about their food allergies or receive information from their current medical team. Some residents with memory conditions may not be able to tell you what they are allergic to, so you might need to conduct medical testing or develop an elimination diet to figure out which foods are safe. Your food service professionals, like a registered dietitian, can help you create menus that provide healthy, tasty alternatives for residents that need substitutions.
You should also ask residents about their personal food preferences and culture during intake. It’s important to remember that you aren’t just doing this to comply with the F-Tags. Focusing on resident preferences, comfort, and quality of life is a significant aspect of person-centered care. Person-centered care puts the resident and their needs first, not the staff’s, and it lets residents actively make decisions about their daily lives.
At Culinary Services Group’s communities, we sit down with each new resident and fill out a food preferences form asking questions about what they like and what they don’t. Then, we use that data to fully customize a menu for that senior living community.
Our team can help ensure you’re passing your food safety inspections while providing delicious meals to your residents that meet their health needs. We take great pride in operating safe, clean kitchens, and we can’t deliver on our promise of delicious, healthy food if your kitchen doesn’t pass state health inspections first.
We take compliance with the F-Tags very seriously. Suppose you sign a contract with us and receive a moderate to serious violation that requires another inspection. In that case, we’ll forgo our management fees until the problem is resolved and your community passes inspection.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your dining team stay compliant with the F-806 tag, contact us here.
We’ve also developed a blog series about how your community can stay compliant with the other relevant FTags. Check out the blogs below to learn more about each tag:
