Puréed food IDDSI level 4

• You will need a blender, liquidiser or sieve.
• You need to ensure there are no lumps.
• Add sauces to your food; however, these must be as thick as the purée itself.
• Purée each food separately to maintain their colour.
• Present foods separately on the plate.
• Add more flavour with ingredients like grated cheese, soft cheese, hummus, or pesto.
• Do not purée foods with skins, seeds, bones, gristle or cartilage.
• If you are making puréed food for someone else, purée half the food and eat the other half in its ‘normal’ form yourself.
• Moulds can be used to shape thick puréed food. Moulds can be bought from shops and on the Internet.
• Add flavour with mustard or curry powder, soy sauce, lemon juice, Bovril, Marmite or spices. Avoid using dried herbs.
• Puréed food can cool down quickly. Warm the plate first to help retain some of the heat.

Breakfast – must be puréed

• Instant porridge such as Ready Brek or thick or a thick, smooth porridge.
• Cereal wheat biscuits, for example Weetabix, well soaked with milk fully absorbed.
• Milkshakes made with puréed fruit (thickener may need to be added).
• Smooth yoghurt or fromage frais.
• Peeled then puréed tinned or fresh fruit, for example peaches or pears.
• Fruit smoothies.

Main meal – must be puréed

• Chicken and gravy with vegetables.
• Beef stew.
• Cottage pie with vegetables.
• Pork and apple casserole.
• Fish in creamy sauce.
• Macaroni cheese.
• Cauliflower and broccoli bake.
• Chicken and spinach curry with sweet potato.
• Greek yoghurt with puréed banana and honey.

Dessert – must be puréed

• Lemon sponge and lemon sauce.
• Syrup sponge and custard.
• Tinned rice pudding.
• Thick, smooth yoghurt.
• Chocolate mousse.
• Fruit and custard or yoghurt.
• Greek yoghurt with puréed banana and honey.

Avoid the following:

• Mixed thin and thick textures: Soup with pieces of food, cereal with milk.
• Hard or dry food: Nuts, raw vegetables (for example carrot, cauliflower, broccoli), dry cakes, bread, dry cereal.
• Tough or fibrous foods: Steak, pineapple.
• Chewy: Lollies/ candies/ sweets, cheese chunks, marshmallows, chewing gum, sticky mashed potato, dried fruits, sticky foods.
• Crispy: Crackling, crisp bacon, cornflakes.
• Crunchy food: Raw carrot, raw apple, popcorn.
• Sharp or spiky: Corn chips and crisps.
• Crumbly bits: Dry cake crumble, dry biscuits.
• Pips, seeds: Apple seeds, pumpkin seeds, white of an orange.
• Food with skins or outer shell: Peas, grapes, chicken skin, salmon skin, sausage skin.
• Foods with husks: Corn, shredded wheat, bran.
• Bone or gristle: Chicken bones, fish bones, other bones, meat with gristle.
• Round, long shaped food: Sausage, grape.
• Sticky or gummy food: Nut butter; overcooked oatmeal/ porridge, edible gelatin, sticky rice cakes.
• Stringy food: Beans, rhubarb.
• Crust or skin formed during cooking or heating: Cheese topping, mashed potato.
• 'Floppy’ food: Lettuce, cucumber, baby spinach leaves.
• ‘Juicy’ food: Where juice separates from the food piece in the mouth, for example watermelon.
• Visible lumps: Lumps in puréed food or yoghurt.