NECTAR : aN Eu Curriculum for chef gasTro-engineering in primAry food caRe . NECTAR addresses a mismatch which has been identified between the skills currently offered by cooks and chefs working in hospitals, residential care and homecare and those actually demanded by healthcare institutions, private service providers and final end users in order to play a pivotal role in Primary Food Care (PFC).
The promotion of Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) at all age of life is a “worldwide” key point of public health strategy. Many EU and regional policies recognized nutrition as key element for all citizens’ AHA, in a lifelong care approach. WHO and evidence-based research point out that malnutrition should be tackled through an International common structured approach, based on the integration of different care levels and managed by inter-professional teams. In this context, a skilled public health workforce, delivering high-quality nutrition services in health care settings, is needed.
NECTAR addresses a mismatch which has been identified between the skills currently offered by cooks and chefs working in hospitals, residential care and homecare and those actually demanded by healthcare institutions, private service providers and final end users in order to play a pivotal role in Primary Food Care (PFC).
Based on a “culinary/ clinical integrated approach”, NECTAR will deliver an EU Occupational Profile for Chef Gastro Engineering and an EU Curriculum for the certification of this profile. Chef Gastro-engineering (CGE) will be an innovative and pivotal figure in PFC, skilled on food management and kitchens coordination, addressing end-users need such as teste deteriorations/ alterations, swallowing and chewing problems, personalizing recipes and cooking processes; CGE will be have the technical skills to use various ICT tools for older adults home monitoring and personalization of care.
CGE Curriculum will be an European, innovative, learning outcome-oriented and modular one. Thanks to its flexibility and modularity, the Curriculum could be instantiated in national Curricula, considering local and contextual constraints. The Curriculum will be tested through 5 pilots courses delivered in Belgium, Portugal, Austria and Italy. NECTAR Alliance includes 12 partners from 4 Countries. The most of them have been collaborating since eight years in the European Innovation Partnership on AHA about this topic and will provide sustainability and scaling-up to project results.