Hospital to offer protein ice cream to patients in Nottingham

A high protein ice cream developed by clinicians to tackle malnutrition is set to be made available to older patients on nine hospital wards in Nottingham.

N-ICE Cream was first offered to patients at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust as part of a trial in 2022.

It will now be rolled out more widely at the Queen’s Medical Centre after Nottingham Hospitals Charity agreed to fund up to £4,800 towards supplies of the ice cream and six mini freezers to store it in.

Prof Opinder Sahota, consultant in ortho-geriatric medicine at NUH, said he was “delighted” to see N-ICE Cream move from a research study to a nutritional supplement product that is routinely offered to patients.

“When you’re not very well, trying to consume a big plate of food can be quite difficult,” he added

“What we also know is obviously if you don’t eat, then clearly you’re not going to get better.

“If you don’t get better, you’re going to start losing muscle and losing protein.”

Prof Sahota said patients who struggled to eat were normally offered high protein nutritional supplement drinks.

However, he added that “a lot of people just don’t like” them.

He told the BBC that when patients were asked what they would eat, many said “something like an ice cream would be really nice”.

N-ICE Cream, manufactured for NUH by Matlock Meadows Dairy Farm, contains about 14.5g of protein and is enhanced with leucine and vitamin D.

The ice cream, which has been peer reviewed, comes in four flavours – vanilla, strawberry, salted caramel and mint.

Prof Sahota, who has driven the N-ICE Cream project, said: “This product has been specifically developed as a nutritious muscle targeted high protein ice cream, which has been designed to address the serious problem of malnutrition and muscle weakness among older people.”

Nigel Gregory, chief executive of Nottingham Hospitals Charity, said he was “pleased” to be able to fund supplies of the ice cream and the fridges.

“We know that nutrition can be a challenge when caring for older patients, and we were very interested to learn about this innovative product,” he added.