No-one enjoys staying in hospital, and more often than not the food does not improve the quality of the stay.

Following celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's attempts to revolutionise the standard and healthy quality of school meals, his peer Heston Blumenthal is hoping to have the same effect on hospital meals.

Elderly patients in hospital are set to benefit from the move by the chef, whose Fat Duck restaurant was this week named third best in the world.

Those who are worried wards' menus will adopt his more extravagant numbers such as bacon and egg ice cream or snail porridge need not fear.

Instead, he is collaborating with the University of Reading and the town's Royal Berkshire Hospital to increase the flavour of well-loved dishes, including shepherd's pie, and make them more attractive to older people, whose sense of taste often deteriorates.

The meals are to be enhanced by increasing their umami properties - the Japanese word for delicious and savoury which is often described as the fifth taste, alongside sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

They will initially be tried out on patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital next year, after a lengthy period of research and testing, and it is hoped the project could then be rolled out nationwide.

Blumenthal said: "Mealtimes should be something to be celebrated in hospital.

"They should be something to look forward to. Umami is a great way to rejuvenate the dining environment in hospital and improve the flavour in the mouth."

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