The rapidly ageing population requires food products that meet their specific physiological needs and have pleasurable sensory characteristics. Conventionally, rheology is used as a food formulation design tool that allows food bolus to be swallowed safely. Nevertheless, in the last few decades, there has been increased understanding of soft tribology of thickeners and fabrication of biologically relevant tribological set-ups. We discuss how this knowledge can offer a solid baseline to employ tribology as a design tool to tailor foods for the elderly population with various oral insufficiencies. In-depth characterisation of oral conditions of the elderly population is a necessary undertaking to fabricate tribology apparatus that better emulates in vivo conditions, to allow rational design of food products for this growing population.