What

Older adults with poor appetite are at high risk of undernutrition due to the role of appetite as a key driver of food intake. Dietary protein and fibre are critical nutrients in this population, and enhancing their intake is vital to preventing undernutrition and maintaining organ function and health.

How

Older persons with poor appetite will first be carefully characterised, and have their nutritional and behavioral preferences evaluated in a mixed-methods approach. Innovative, affordable, easily and widely applicable food products will be developed for, and together with older persons with poor appetite. This will be achieved by combining several plant proteins and dietary fibres. Efficacy of developed products will be gained by examining their impact through: physical activity and probiotic interventions on digestibility, amino acid bioavailability and whole-body protein metabolism. In a multi-country randomised controlled intervention trial, the impact of two new food products will be examined as part of a personalised optimised diet, a physical activity program, and their combination will be determined regarding appetite, dietary intake, nutritional status, anabolic response, metabolic parameters and physiological function. A wide range of dissemination activities will raise awareness, share knowledge, and improve dialogue between consumers, scientists, healthcare professionals, food industry and health policy.

Who

In APPETITE, a transdisciplinary consortium of experienced experts from eight institutions in six European countries (Ireland, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands) will collaborate to enhance protein and fibre consumption of community-dwelling older persons with poor appetite and overcome undernutrition through targeted nutrition and physical activity. A translational approach will be taken, including the development of innovative food products in cooperation with consumers, testing of these products at experimental level as well as investigating their clinical application using harmonized methodologies in high-level developmental,metabolic and clinical research