Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S government will impose minimum standards for healthy menus in hospitals and nursing homes- similar to what schools will have to do from September.
The Ministries of Social Rights and Health are preparing a royal decree to guarantee healthy and nutritious food is served to patients and elderly residents.
Social Rights Minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said on Thursday that the state regulation will follow the pattern of one approved last month for the new school year.
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It will establish baseline levels of nutritional quality and sustainability in meals prepared in hospitals and nursing homes.
Bustinduy did not go into further details but based on school canteens, that measure orders vegetables and fruit to be supplied as well as increasing the amount of fresh fish and legumes.
Sugary drinks, pasties and pretty much all fried options as well as precooked and processed foods will be banned.
The minister justified the new regulation as hospitals and nursing homes are ‘centres of special relevance’.
“Menus will be based on dietary recommendations in regard to healthy and sustainable eating, for all age groups and adjusting to different contexts,” Bustinduy stated.
He added that he was responding to a ‘social outcry’ and many complaints made by citizens and groups about deficiencies found in some centres as well as the need to improve food in hospitals and nursing homes.
