Malnutrition at hospital admission is a risk factor for an unfavourable outcome, prolonged hospital stay and delayed recovery. In these patients the incidence of complications such as nosocomial infections, poor ventilatory function, prolonged bed rest is increased. In addition a relevant proportion of patients have a nutritional intake below their needs during hospitalisation.Mortality has been shown to be up to 8 times higher and dependency at discharge up to 3 times more frequent when actual food intake was below 25% of calculated needs.