Research Progress and Development Trends of Easy-to-Swallow Foods for Older Adults with Dysphagia

Population ageing, sarcopenia, and the increasing burden of neurodegenerative diseases have led to a growing demand for dietary safety and nutritional support among older adults with dysphagia. Traditional softening, pureeing, and empirical thickening methods can reduce aspiration risk to some extent, but they are often associated with reduced nutrient density, unstable texture, poor visual recognizability, and limited long-term compliance. Focusing on the development of easy-to-swallow foods for older adults with dysphagia. Recent progress in swallowing function decline, bolus rheological safety, texture and sensory adaptation, nutritional requirements, standard evaluation systems, and key processing technologies were systematically summarized. The application value of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative and domestic dietary management consensus in texture classification, bedside testing, and clinical communication were analyzed, and it was indicated that easy-to-swallow food design had shifted from the simple description of “soft” or “thick” toward precision regulation based on viscosity, hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, rheological properties, and digestive behavior. Technological strategies, including thickening and rheological regulation, soft gel reconstruction, enzymatic hydrolysis and mild processing, three-dimensional printing, and microencapsulation-based functional delivery were further summarized, and the roles of these strategies in improving bolus control, reducing chewing burden, increasing nutritional density, and enhancing sensory acceptability were clarified. In view of current bottlenecks, such as the lack of systematic evidence linking static laboratory indicators with real clinical health benefits and the insufficient long-term compliance of existing products, future research should be oriented toward real health benefits for patients, establish a stratified design system integrating safety, nutrition, and sensory quality, strengthen clinical outcome validation and real-world clinical data accumulation, and promote the transition of easy-to-swallow foods from risk-avoidance-oriented texture modification to health-promoting precision provision. This review aimed to provide theoretical support and technical reference for nutritional intervention in older adults with dysphagia in hospitals, elderly care institutions, and home-care settings.