The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s (ACQSC’s) new Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline and Advisory Support Unit has received an average of fewer than three complaints a day in the nearly four months since it launched on 27 July 2023.

Most food-related complaints are about personal and oral hygiene, quality and variety of food, and adequate nutrition and/or hydration, a spokesperson for the ACQSC told The SOURCE.

The ACQSC continues to receive food complaints through the usual channels too – online forms, emails, letters, and calls to the Commission’s 1800 phone number. The number of these complaints and enquiries has remained stable.

In the three months to the launch of the hotline (from 28 April to 27 July 2023), the ACQSC received 382 food-related complaints.

In the three months following the launch (28 July to 27 October 2023), 386 food-related complaints were received.

The Food, Nutrition and Dining Hotline and Advisory Support Unit is staffed by dietitians and a speech pathologist and is aimed at helping improve food, nutrition, and dining standards across the aged care sector.

Food service and quality was identified as a major problem in residential aged care during the Royal Commission, when it was revealed large numbers of residents were at risk of malnutrition.

But in a sector with 190,000 residents, six complaints a day through the Hotline and the usual channels would suggest that the majority of the sector is performing well on food.