Chiang Mai uni tech offers palatable heathy alternatives to patients
People with malnutrition, including the elderly and children, now have alternatives that could tickle their taste buds, thanks to a platform developed by Chiang Mai University.
"FoodPrompt" has been developed to tackle two main issues - helping the elderly to consume food and ensuring that patients will get all the nutritional benefits they need.
This technology features a processing method to change liquid foods into solid, which looks like a Thai traditional dessert called "Leum Kluen" (Forgot to swallow).
It is easy to consume and rich in nutritional value, offering 300 kilocalories — equal to a dish of Hainanese chicken rice.
With a 3D food creating machine, the food can be shaped according to a patient’s preferences, such as heart, pyramid and honeycomb.
Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), the platform can analyse the food amount and nutrition based on the information of each patient.
In the future, the developers have planned to offer variants to flavours and shapes to meet the appetite of consumers.
Thailand is moving towards an ageing society, in which the number of the elderly could be as high as 28% of the total population in 2031. This will impact Thai society, especially the government's budget allocation for treating this group of people.
Meanwhile, the elderly need special care compared to others as they are vulnerable to diseases and accidents. Malnutrition is among degenerative conditions that the elderly could face.
Hence, encouraging the elderly to get adequate nutrition will greatly benefit their body.
