Assessment of dysphagia will clarify which particular food textures may present difficulties for the person with dysphagia to eat safely and recommendations for any necessary texture modification of foods and fluids will be made. However, there are specific ‘high risk’ food types/combinations that can present additional safety risks to the person with dysphagia and may also present risk to people who have milder symptoms of dysphagia. Foods that may present a higher risk include:
- Anything that falls outside the recommended food textures prescribed by the Speech and Language Therapist.
Boiled sweets, toffees, chewing gum.- Chocolates containing nuts, candied or chewy centres.
- Nuts and seeds.
- ‘Mixed texture’ foods e.g. mixing thin fluids with pieces of food as in soups, casseroles, tinned fruits, cereal, fruits where juice separates from the flesh (melon, kiwi etc).
- Food with skins, ‘husks’ or ‘stringy’ bits e.g. kidney beans, green beans, peas, grapes, peaches, sausages, tomatoes, sweetcorn.
- Some breads containing hard crusts and/or whole seeds.
- Hard and citrus fruits e.g. apples, oranges.
- ‘Floppy’ foods e.g. lettuce, cucumber, uncooked spinach leaves.
- Hard, chewy, tough, fibrous, dry, crumbly, battered, bread crumbed foods e.g. celery, pineapple, bacon, pie crusts, baked toppings, crumbles, pizza, fried fish, toast.
- Sticky foods e.g. cheese pieces, marshmallow, peanut butter.
- Meat that includes skin, gristle or fatty pieces.
Please refer to IDDSI descriptors for food textures that pose a choking risk.
Please note the above list is not comprehensive. Individual treatment plans should include clear guidelines regarding food types to avoid.