Last updated on June 15th, 2023
Your senior living community most likely has a diverse resident population with different dietary needs and preferences. While some residents can and will eat anything you serve, other residents may follow a special diet due to medical conditions or religious beliefs. Developing menus for these residents is one of the many F-Tag requirements that communities like yours must follow.
F-Tags refer to areas of compliance assessed during a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Survey. Your state and CMS use F-Tags to identify deficiencies in your community.
Certain F-Tags focus on creating menus that meet residents’ needs and preferences — but that shouldn’t be the only reason your community is accommodating those with specific dietary needs, like keeping kosher or other belief-based diets.
You should be basing your menus around needs and preferences because that is a primary component of person-centered care. Person-centered care puts the resident’s wants and needs first, not the staff’s. It means that residents are actively making decisions about their daily lives.
Which F-Tags Give Guidance on Belief-Based Diets?
Two F-tags are extremely relevant for residents who eat kosher or halal.
F803 states that menus must meet resident needs and also must:
- Be prepared in advance
- Be followed
- Reflect, based on a facility’s reasonable efforts, the religious, cultural, and ethnic needs of the resident population, as well as input received from residents and resident groups.
- Be updated periodically
- Be reviewed by the facility’s dietitian or other clinically qualified nutrition professional for nutritional adequacy
The other tag is F806. This one states that each resident in your community must receive food that accommodates their allergies, intolerances, and preferences. And appealing options of similar nutritional value must be offered to residents who choose not to eat food that is initially served or who request a different meal choice.
Popular Belief-Based Diets
What is a Kosher diet?
According to Kosher.com, Kosher food “does not have any non-kosher ingredients in accordance with Jewish law.” There are a lot of guidelines that need to be followed when it comes to keeping kosher, like not mixing meat and milk, not using animal products from non-kosher animals, and only using meat from kosher animals that are slaughtered following certain procedures.
In the United States today, only 17% of Jewish Americans keep kosher in their home, including 14% who say they separate meat and dairy and 3% who say they are vegetarian or vegan. Some senior living communities have seen a downward trend in kosher diets. This article found that even when communities have full kosher kitchens that some residents eat at a majority of the time, residents still might enjoy a non-kosher meal when a favorite food is on the menu in the non-kosher dining room.
What is a Halal diet?
Halal food is “that which adheres to Islamic law, as defined in the Koran.” With a Halal diet, animals must also be slaughtered according to certain procedures. Some foods are Haram, meaning they are not permitted on a halal diet. See a list of Haram foods here.
If your community doesn’t serve Halal meals, it might be time to consider it. One report found that the halal food market is increasing and is set to grow by $8.17 billion from 2020 to 2024.
While some residents may not follow kosher, halal, or other belief-based diets 100% of the time, it’s still essential for your community to understand their preferences and meet them where they are. The best way to do that is to talk to your residents. Find out if they have any dietary preferences and how strictly they follow them. And don’t forget to have this conversation regularly. Food preferences change all the time, so you want to keep your residents’ preferences updated as often as possible.
You can also make following diets easier for residents by ensuring all foods are labeled throughout your dining room and snack stations. One dining hall in North Carolina did this by identifying pork products and adding a pink pig icon to food labels to help diners understand which dishes to avoid.
Following Food Preferences Means Attracting More Residents
Besides following CMS guidelines and creating a better quality of life for residents who follow special diets, your community may also see a bump in new residents by making these changes. When evaluating senior living communities, many potential residents and their caretakers need to know if the community will be able to accommodate their dietary needs with tasty meals.
Potential residents will most likely want to see a sample menu for their diet to see if the food is appealing. They also may want to know how often the menus change (to ensure they won’t have to eat the same thing week after week) and potentially sample some of the food.
We know that setting up your dining program to accommodate multiple diets successfully can be a challenge, but it’s well worth it to benefit your residents (and keep your community in good standing with CMS). Culinary Services Group can help you plan menus and alternatives for all types of diets, whether it be Kosher, Halal, vegan, vegetarian, or any other dietary need. Contact us today to learn more.
We’ve also developed a blog series about how your community can stay compliant with the other relevant F-Tags. Check out the blogs below to learn more about each tag:
- What Food Inspectors Are Looking For in Your Kitchen
- How to Prepare Your Kitchen for an Inspection
- How to Ensure Your Menus Meet Resident Needs
- Creating Allergy-Friendly Menus at Your Senior Living Community
- Preparing Food That is Palatable, Attractive, and Safe
- Serving Meals that Match Resident Assessment Plans
- Are Your Residents Eating Enough During the Day?
