Abstract

Author(s): Souza Santos, Virgínia; Faria Gontijo, Michele Cristina; Ferreira de Almeida, Martha Elisa

Introduction: the gastronomy provides a attractive and harmonious presentation of the meals, in addition to allying the nutritional quality of the meal.

Objective: to evaluate the effect of gastronomic techniques in acceptability the preparations offered to hospitalized patients.

Methods: the sensory attributes, temperature, and overall acceptability of the meals before and after the use of gastronomic techniques by the affective method were analyzed, and the Rest-Ingestion Index was calculated. For the analysis of the data the paired T-test was used, at 5% of significance

Results: mean scores of sensory attributes, temperature, and overall acceptability of meals increased (p<0.05) in both genders after the use of gastronomic techniques, while the Rest-Ingestion Index decreased.

Conclusion: the application of gastronomic techniques provided a greater intake of meals by patients by improving the quality of sensorial attributes and temperature, suggesting that this fact can improve the nutritional status of hospitalized patients, and reduce costs with meal wastage.