Generally nursing homes must provide each resident a nourishing, palatable, well–balanced diet that meets daily nutritional and special dietary needs. Specific legal requirements include requiring the nursing home:
- Serve at least three meals daily, at regular times, with not more than a 14–hour span between the evening meal and breakfast;
Offer snacks at bedtime; - Reasonably accommodate resident food and mealtime preferences;
- Offer a food substitute of similar nutritional value if a resident refuses food;
- Serve food attractively, at the proper temperature, and in a form to meet individual needs;
- Prepare and follow menus that meet national dietary standards;
- Plan menus with consideration of the residents’ cultural backgrounds and food habits;
- Post the current and following week’s menus for regular and special diets;
- Prepare food using methods that conserve nutritive value, flavor and appearance;
- Provide therapeutic diets to residents with nutritional problems, subject to physician orders;
- Ensure that a resident’s ability to eat does not diminish unless it is medically unavoidable;
- Provide individualized help to residents who need assistance with meals, offering enough assistance and time so that residents can finish meals;
- Provide special eating utensils to residents who need them;
- Provide table service to all residents who desire it, served at tables of appropriate height;
- Store, prepare, distribute and serve food under sanitary conditions.
