Cancer father worried about the weight of the paste boy after 90’s son studying Hong Kong-style soft meal: good taste and dignity

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Written by: Deng Liumei and Liu Shuwen

2021-01-30 12:10

Last update date: 2021-01-30 12:10

As the saying goes, "Food is the heaven for the people." After hard work, of course, I hope I can eat delicious comfort tea and rice. However, many elderly or patients suffer from varying degrees of difficulty in swallowing due to deterioration of their physical functions, and lose the ability to enjoy food. Greatly reduced.

Faced with the sorrow of the dearest relatives, even if the family feels the same, they are afraid of love and helpless.

Francis, a Hong Kong male born in the 90s, had a deep experience in his early years. His father recovered from cancer. The doctor suggested that he should eat soft meals. However, his family could not buy suitable food. Although his father's weight was halved, he still couldn't eat. All heartbroken.

Until by accident, Francis’s homemade salmon mud elicited his father’s appetite, which inspired him to research soft meals. He also started a business with his partner and introduced Japanese technology to produce Hong Kong-style soft meal foods that are "good looking and delicious", such as Hainanese chicken rice and savory barbecued pork, so that all friends and patients can eat safely and with dignity.

He Hao-te, a young man born in the 1990s, has personally experienced the "difficult food" days when caring for his cancer father. He decided to start a business with his partner to make "good-looking and delicious" Hong Kong-style soft meals.

(Photo by Deng Liumei)

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Francis, 27, founded the soft meal brand "Happy Genki" with his partner two years ago. Unlike ordinary young entrepreneurs, he chose to invest in the soft meal business with the elderly as the main sales target, all because of the care The profound experience of cancer father.

Francis's father recovered from cancer three years ago. Because his health has not recovered, the doctor advised him to switch to soft meals. "At first, the family tried very hard to find soft meal and nursing food suppliers in Hong Kong, but unfortunately they could not find ready-made products. I had to bite the bullet and do it myself."

At that time, he tried to make a meal according to online recipes, but his father only tried one or two bites and refused to eat it again. "He picked up (the food) and said, "After eating, let’s go." No interest in "food".

Francis recalled that when taking care of his father, he had studied different dishes in hopes of arousing his appetite, but all of them were to no avail. He was distressed and under great pressure.

(Photo by Deng Liumei)

Seeing that his father became thin after his illness, his weight plummeted from about 160 pounds to more than 80 pounds. Francis felt extremely distressed as a caregiver. At the same time, he was under tremendous pressure and felt like he was racing against time. He desperately studied his father's "you can eat and want to eat." But the process is full of doubts. "It is difficult to think about whether he likes it, whether he can finish it, how much he can eat... there are many question marks."

At that time, Francis and his family had no idea about soft meals. They had no idea what it was. They had to go to the market six times a day to buy fresh ingredients, but he still couldn't regain his appetite and refused to eat.

Until one time, he put the salmon in the oven and bake it, and then pressed it into a salmon puree with a fork, unexpectedly making his father taste good.

After repeated trials, he and his family gradually grasped his father’s tastes and needs, and made about 30 soft meals in the same way as salmon mash. “In fact, they (patients) also like fragrant mouthfuls, because the food cannot be too hard. They want to eat stronger food."

After working hard for a few months, my father’s weight returned to the original level, and later he "improved" to eat a crushed meal that preserved the original appearance of the food. Francis and his family were very excited. "You eat a soft meal today. Soft meal".

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This unforgettable experience of helping Dad "feed" unexpectedly opened Francis's entrepreneurial road. Because of that battle, Francis and his family deeply realized that every meal has a significant impact on the patient and the elderly's physical and mental health, and it is also a recovery process. Therefore, he collected information and technology on soft meals from various places. In 2019, he and three partners from Japan and the Mainland established the soft meal brand "Happy Genki". "We think this matter can help people, and We are capable of doing it."

As a young person born in the 90s, it is not easy to create a business that focuses on the elderly and chronic patients. Francis admitted that it takes a lot of hard work to understand the tastes of soft meal users.

He worked hard to study soft foods from various countries and repeatedly thought about the process of taking care of his father. He found that the appearance of the food was extremely important. He understood that the elders could hardly raise their appetites when they saw a bowl of mixed foods. Curious, just as when salmon mud was unexpectedly favored by my father, "In fact, they are not very demanding, they just need to know what the food is."

Many elderly people can only eat glutinous meals due to swallowing difficulties. Francis believes that not only did they fail to enjoy the eating process, they even "eat without dignity."

(Profile picture)

On weekdays in nursing homes or hospitals for the elderly, soft meals are mostly made by putting several kinds of food into a blender and smashed into a "paste boy." Francis believes that this method fails to allow people to enjoy the meal process, and even "eats without dignity." "It is true that the ingredients inside are all real ingredients, but the elderly people feel that eating this way is just to fill their stomachs, so they eat less. In the end, they can only rely on nutrients for support, and even use the nose, stomach and throat. I think eating like this Quite no dignity", so he decided to study soft lunches that can be stored at room temperature and suit the taste of Hong Kong people.

In the early stages of product development, Francis paid great attention to details. The safety of eating soft meals is the most important thing, hoping to reduce the risk of choking on the throat. "If the sauce of soft meals is not well done, the elderly are prone to "karma" when eating. It is definitely not a trivial matter for the elderly to kiss each other, so we are very strict in this part."

For this reason, he has tried a variety of soft lunches with more than 20 speech therapists and then rated them, and adjusted the thinness of soft meals according to the International Dysphagia Dietary Standard (IDDSI).

In the end, the team added Japanese soft meal technology to the taste of Hong Kong, and produced exquisite Hong Kong-style soft lunches, such as Hainanese chicken spleen meal and aromatic barbecued pork meal, and launched different seasonal foods during the festival. So far, there are more than 360 hospitals. More than 25,000 people have enjoyed its products.

Francis pointed out that if the cost of long-term ordering of soft meals is about 2500 yuan per month, if calculated on the basis of 2 meals a day and 30 days a month, he believes that the price is affordable by the caregiver.

He hopes that the soft lunch will not only help the elderly, but also share the worries of the caregivers. "Seeing that the health of the people you care about is getting worse, it is very hard to make food that they can eat. We hope to relieve their pressure. ".

He pointed out that in the current world soft meal market, Japan and South Korea are leading the development, but he is confident that the local soft meal production technology also has unique and superior advantages. "As long as it suits the taste, users are willing to accept it; just like our research and development. For the soft meal mooncakes, not only one layer of food is formed, but three layers of food are formed. For the time being, only we can master this method."

Francis hopes to work with the team to improve the existing technology and continue to develop more soft meal foods, such as dim sum and siu mei. In the future, Hong Kong-style soft lunch boxes can be brought to the overseas market, so as to solve more elderly and patients' resistance to "pasty food" And cause the problem of malnutrition.

"Happy Vitality" focuses on the research and development of Hong Kong-style soft meal foods. For the first time this year, it launched a series of Chinese New Year soft meals and nursing foods.

(Provided by interviewee)

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