Food Corporations Note: America Needs....

[danemodsandy]

In that part of my strange, two-track professional life that deals with special-needs people and the elderly, I am seeing the most obvious of all possible needs - going entirely un-met.

These two groups are huge customers for frozen meals. Special-needs people have a hard time with real cooking. The elderly often don't have the energy for it. And the frozen meal purchases made by these two groups are an attempt to have something halfway decent to eat which can be prepared within their limitations.

What I'm seeing is that NO ONE makes meals that either group can prepare without problems.

A special-needs person often has a very hard time deciphering: "Remove plastic film from brownie, chicken and potatoes; pierce film over vegetables. Microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes. Remove brownie with a fork, re-arrange chicken pieces, stir potatoes. Remove film from vegetables, stir, replace film. Microwave on HIGH an additional 3 minutes; allow product to sit 2 minutes before serving."

An elderly person can have cognitive problems similar to those of a special-needs person, plus vision problems that do not lend themselves to making out directions printed in four-point yellow type against a red background.

Additionally, the plastic film used on these meals is prone to shredding when removed, leaving shreds that can end up in someone's food. I saw this happen only this past Thursday; fortunately the special-needs person did not aspirate the plastic. I have seen the elderly do that.

And there's a lot of uncooked food in frozen food, meaning that misinterpretation of directions can lead to eating of undercooked meats. NOT. GOOD.

So - here's my plea, to anyone who is in the frozen-food industry:

What a lot of people need is a one-step meal - microwave it for a specified amount of time, and you're done. Directions need to be big and bold. Nothing should need uncovering, stirring, re-arranging, removing or re-covering during the preparation. Just one period of microwaving, PERIOD.

And that damned plastic film needs to be modified - make it red, so it's easier to spot. Or print yellow stripes on it. Anything.

I would not be mentioning this if I had not personally witnessed many instances where people were about to eat something not fully cooked, or with plastic in it. And I've also witnessed many instances where people were so defeated by picky directions in tiny type that they gave up and left perfectly nutritious frozen meals in the freezer, unprepared, and lived off canned soup instead.

Someone out there is in the food biz, or knows someone who is. I'd love to see someone work on this issue - there really is a crying need out here.

Off my soapbox....

 

[danemodsandy]

And P.S.:

If anyone should actually take up the challenge I've laid out in the previous post, they would also do well to remember that these people need actual nutrition. While I'm not going to advocate for all the low-sodium, fat-free, gluten-free stuff that some nutrition mavens would like everyone to eat, I do have one very, very pointed comment:

THERE ARE OTHER FREAKING VEGETABLES BESIDES CORN THAT CAN GO INTO A FROZEN MEAL. Corn is starchy and sugary, and while it is certainly fun to eat, it doesn't offer nearly the nutritional bang for the buck that green beans, peas, carrots, and vegetable medleys can.

So, that'd be nice - to see people who need nutrition getting choices other than the ubiquitous corn seen in so many meals.

 

[dustin92]

GREAT IDEA!

While I'm not disabled or elderly, I don't buy frozen meals often, because in the time it takes to open, uncover, re cover, microwave, stir, microwave more (often at a different power setting),etc, I can prepare a simple meal (sandwich, can of soup, bowl of cereal, whatever). Not really all that time saving, and some are downright nasty. I would likely buy a simple, nutritious, flavorful meal that can just be uncovered and microwaved for a set amount of time. Done, ready to eat. I think it would be good to use a cardboard or foil cover that is removed before cooking. Simple instructions stating "remove cover and heat for (X) minutes or until hot" in large print. I don't know why it hasn't been done yet. Yes there are "simple" or "easy" frozen meals, but some are nasty, too small, or have no nutritional value. There are good tasting, nutritious meals, but they can be complicated to prepare (case in point- some of the "steamers" meals- cut slits in the plastic, cook at 50% power for 3 1/2 minutes, remove from microwave, stir this into that, re cover, microwave for another 2 minutes at full power, stir, uncover and serve) of course all in fine print.

 

[joelippard]

This is very good!  I've not had a microwave frozen meal in many years.  I've always had my suspicions about heating up that plastic film that covers it, you can smell that stuff get hot with the food.  No telling what kind of chemicals it has in it.

 

[mikael3]

The Wall Street Journal just a few weeks ago ran an article on falling sales of frozen dinners and frozen foods in general. So who knows, maybe the search for new consumers will lead to some positive developments in the frozen food aisle. One problem is that really good quality frozen food is cost prohibitive. There's a reason corn and potatoes are the common ingredients in those frozen dinners.

When I was little, we canned and froze most of our food for the year, including the meat from a cow we slaughtered each year. I developed a bit of distaste for most frozen food from that period, especially frozen meat, which is too bad, since a lot of frozen ingredients are actually good, when handled correctly.

 

[arbilab]

Deep subject. I live in a building full of elderly and lemme tellya, they can't all be trusted with so much as a sink stopper. With few exceptions, microwaves cannot produce edible food without astute supervision. They do however turn themselves off before bad things happen, assuming the operator has entered 6min not 60min. The elderly can't be trusted to do that either.

The frozenfood industry has spent millions if not billions on chemistry defeating the artifacts of freezing. Hence the number of ingredients most people have to google and even then not know what they are. Propylene glycol pops up frequently, fairly innocuous antifreeze (what's in "pet safe"). So do..... detergents! To keep sauces from separating.

Then there's the well-known artifact of microwaving, the infamous half-burned/half-cold syndrome. What I consider a fact, is that hardly ANYthing can just be plopped in a microwave for a set time and come out right. Package design might ameliorate to an extent by breaking quantities up into sizes uwaves can penetrate effectively. But at the cost of larger packages for the same weight of food.

Not to mention there is a 2:1 variation in power, the results of which cannot be anticipated. My 30yo uwave is only 600 Watts. For some things it takes twice as long as instructed. For others it takes exactly as instructed, though the instructions are for 1100W. Most people, elderly or not, can't adapt to such variations unless they are already/still competent in the kitchen.

I do use frozens in between fresh but I do them in the analog oven. It's more expensive and takes longer but hey, I've gotta eat the stuff. Also make my own frozens like spaghetti sauce and breakfast sausage which are much less practical to cook one serving at a time and require only heating. The second thing I learned to cook in college was fried chicken. Six drumsticks, eat two and freeze 4 in recycled TV dinner aluminum trays. With, you guessed it, corn and peas.

Really clumsy, forgetful, unable to read or follow instructions seniors, and those who never could cook in the first place, probably need assisted living accomodations. Catch, a lot more expensive than assisted finance like this building. More than a couple have had to move out as they became unable to manage for themselves. OTOH some confined to motorized wheelchairs manage to scratch cook, not only for themselves but for group events. "Elderly" is a pretty big spectrum.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Bring back the aluminum foil-packaged stuff you cook in the conventional oven!

(Well, then again you don't want anyone trying to put THAT in the microwave...)

-- Dave

 

[danemodsandy]

Rick:

Good thoughts here.

The problem with putting people in assisted living accommodations is that funding is not easy to get, or to maintain. Today's watchword is "independence," which is used as a holy mantra.

It sounds great - who among us does not wish to be independent, acting of our own free will?

The catch is: This mantra is a cover-up for society's unwillingness to pay for supports. Much cheaper to put in a staff person for five or six hours a week than it is to house, clothe and feed an impaired person 24/7. Sadly, few people - in the field or out of it - have any idea just how much some clients struggle in spite of their support staff.

Even when funding is found, it is subject to politics. The assisted-living facility that exists today may be told there is "no budget" tomorrow, because politicians go on a budget-cutting spree - not that such sprees ever, by any least chance, extend to their own salaries and perks. The same applies to all supports - it's up and down, up and down - budget today, but less budget or no budget tomorrow.

And arrant stupidity often renders such support as is available much less helpful. An example is HUD apartments, which used to be available to senior citizens as "senior only" communities. Well, some 'effin idiot judge ruled that that is discrimination against other age groups and that such housing has to be available without regard to age. So now, formerly pleasant and secure HUD senior complexes now have drugs, gang activity, muggings of elderly residents, you name it.

I hear your concerns about creating one-step frozen meals, and I agree that there would be some challenges involved. But it seems to me that a society capable of creating some of the exotic frozen foods we have is also capable of figuring out how to put a good, nutritious meal into a one-step microwavable format.

 

[cornutt]

The real answer to this would be microwaves with a scanner built in, and barcodes on the actual food tray. You put the tray in, the oven scans the bar code, and retrieves the cooking instructions from a database. The user just presses START and off it goes.

 

[whirlcool]

Another thing is I wish the frozen food mfgs would make the instructions larger.
Most of them put the cooking instructions in micro print on the end flaps. Even with glasses most people can't read them.

Even as far back as the 70's you could use aluminum trays in the microwave. Our Litton manual said you could do it if you put the tray back in the box it came in to shield the over from the metal.

Most microwaves have a "sweet spot". Back in the early 70's I took a quick microwave cooking class. How do you find this sweet spot? Get a large non metal tray and put it in the microwave. Then cover it with bread slices. Place a slice of cheddar cheese on each slice. Then microwave on High for 20 seconds. Look at the slices of bread. Some will be melted, some partially melted and some will so no sign of melting at all. The place that has the most melted bread slices is the "sweet spot". Of course microwave ovens with turntable help a lot when it comes to even cooking.

Some frozen foods are actually pretty good. WhangChang-Ferry makes some Chinese food mixes that are frozen and you cook them yourself at home. We rate those very high in terms of flavor and convenience. But recently they seem to have dissappeared from our grocery stores. At one time the company had a strong television commercial support for the product, but I haven't seen any of those in probably two years.

If you are going to buy frozen dinners check the nutrition label. A lot of them have ungodly amounts of salt in them. Check the same item between brands. Marie Callendar's Pot Roast TV dinners have almost 1/3 less salt then Boston Market's version.

 

[paulg]

Microwave ovens and the elderly

Having worked for a microwave-oven manufacturer for many years, I'd like to add a comment or two. All suggestions represented here are spot-on. Cannot agree more.
I too am aware of microwave-ovens vs elderly/ special needs. Their plight is totally under-represented by the appliance (and television) manufacturers.
Too often I've seen elderly ruin their microwave ovens by simple mistakes. It's usually a brand-new oven that the well-meaning child purchased to replace a long-weakened oven. The now twice-as-fast oven is turned to junk in the second use by the confused parent.
My suggestion: Invent the special-needs food product, but make uniform the cooking process and use the sensor-cook (humidity sensor feature) as the timing agent. One big button "SENSOR-COOK" in bold. Insert food, press button.
Forget about entering cook times and the elderly. It's not their fault. Even among NEW microwave ovens, piece-to-piece output variances of even the SAME model oven can be dramatic; therefore the cooking can vary dramatically.
Let the humidity sensor be the judge. When a certain amount of steam emanates in a certain amount of time, the food is likely done. Even if the magnetron output were to vary a lot, the steam rate may change but the decision of doneness will still be done with intelligence.
This type of oven is easily done. Take a humidity-sensor oven, change the membrane keypad to eliminate confusing features, dump the clock, add a bold sensor-cook pad and you're largely done.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Kashi makes frozen meals that are tasy, healthy and as additive-free as is practical.

Here's my simple solution for times when I'm too tired to eat properly:

1.
-- A casserole type frozen dinner, like Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.
-- A package of frozen broccoli
-- A can of ceci beans because I like them.

2. Dump all into a Corning Ware container and put the lid on.

3. Nuke 5 minutes, stir, and repeat.

4. Stuff your face then put Corning Ware dish (with leftovers in it) into 'fridge.

5. Nuke 5 min for next meal.

Yes, I know this doesn't address all the obstacles, but ONE PATTERN could be devised using the person's favorite foods.

Just a thought: My grandmother just couldn't get the hang of a micorwave, even though she was cognitively intact. One of my cousins found a microwave with actual DIALS for the time and power level. Problem solved! It turned out the issue was the digital controls, not a failure to understand how to use a microwave.

Yes, I know this doesn't correlate exactly, but simplified controls labelled with large, high-contrast print might enable some individuals to do more than they otherwise could.

Soapbox alert:

A LOT of elderly and people with developmental disabilities are going through life with improperly fit or out of date eyeglasses and hearing aids, if they even have any. The resulting behaviours are frequently assumed to be a worsening of problems/symptoms when in reality the person hasn't changed. He just can't see or hear what's going on!

Off soapbox now

Jim