The Benefits of Sous Vide for Senior Living Food Service

In recent years, significant changes have shaken the world of senior living – and many of them have been directly related to food service. Gone are the days where all senior living residents would dine in a single cafeteria-style dining room, with a set menu and set times. Instead, today’s seniors have created a new movement that involves caring for their health and well-being while also focusing on their nutritional wants and needs. These new senior living facilities have increased their food offerings creating all-inclusive, high-end communities that feel more like vacation resorts than ever before. 

For an industry that focused strictly on healthcare, this transition to putting the food wants and amenities to the forefront is fast becoming the norm. Instead of set times in dining rooms, snack carts are available 24/7, ready-to-serve meals are available for delivery to homes, and person-centered care has transformed the operational food mindset of senior living facilities. 

However, these new food demands have created a shift in the operational production of food creation and distribution. Food producers for these facilities have had to transition away from traditional cafeteria-style foods or dining-in and become flexible with a beefed-up inventory for delivering foods to houses, ready-to-heat meals, or grab-and-go options. 

How Sous Vide Can Help Senior Living Facilities

As senior living facilities pivot away from large communal dining rooms and focus on experiential food options, food producers must adjust how they prepare and serve their food. To do this, many facilities have invested in a commercial sous vide machine. Foods cooked using the sous vide method can meet the flexibility of this new food demand with products that taste delicious, are nutritionally sound, transport better, and have a longer shelf life.

The Benefits of Sous Vide

Using sous vide cooking for senior living facilities offers unmatched control over the finished product, reduces yield loss (compared to traditional cooking methods), and delivers perfectly cooked food every time. The sous vide cooking method slow-cooks food in vacuum-sealed plastic pouches, submerged in a precisely controlled water bath. After the product is thoroughly cooked, the food comes out tender and fresh-tasting.

Using the sous vide method for senior living facilities will help accommodate the various food offerings needed at a facility. The sous vide method will help keep costs down while also producing excellent food results and variety. From outfitting the snack cart to delivering delicious and tender steaks for dinner, commercial sous vide cooking provides unique food products that are cooked, chilled, stored, and rethermalized in the same packaging. This cooking method creates substantial cost savings for food producers, and it also produces easily and safely transported and stored food. 

Learn More About Our Sous Vide Equipment

Today’s senior living resident wants their meals to be high quality, nutritious and also varied. At DC Norris North America, we have various sous vide cook tanks that can meet the diverse tastes of residents with bulk cooking capacities that range from 50 to more than 1,000 gallons. No matter the capacity you need for your food service, every piece of DC Norris sous vide equipment offers intuitive automation features. Sous vide allows for bulk cooking of products with little or no employee oversight required. It also lowers overhead and produces consistent, reliable finished product quality.

Learn more about our sous vide cooking tanks and systems by choosing the size that suits you below.