Patent ID: 7870008

Claim:
A method for facilitating food service management in a health care facility, said method comprising the steps of: establishing a standard set of therapeutic diet types contained in a master diet type database stored in the memory of a computer-based system; storing a plurality of food recipes in said memory within a recipe database; obtaining nutritional data on each food item used in said plurality of recipes and storing said data in said memory within a food item database; evaluating the nutritional content of each food item, wherein said evaluating is performed by a computer processor; establishing and storing preselected nutritional criteria in said memory; verifying a nutritional value of each of said plurality of recipes in said recipe database, wherein said verifying is performed by said processor; assigning, with said processor, various food attributes to said recipes based upon said verified nutritional values in said memory; shaping menu sets of said recipes for each of said established therapeutic diet types in a menu database in said memory based upon said assigned food attributes, wherein said shaping menus sets is performed by said processor; providing a remote electronic data link to food service professionals associated with said healthcare facility to access said data; collecting information from said food service professionals and storing in said memory; creating menu sets in accordance with said preselected nutritional criteria to said food service professionals, wherein said creating menu sets is performed by said processor; providing nutritional information associated with said menu sets electronically available to said food service professionals; and tracking an inventory of food items at said health care facility in said memory.