Evaluation of the Food and Nutrition Guidelines series

The Food and Nutrition Guidelines Series includes five population-specific documents that provide evidence based technical information on food, nutrition and physical activity for health practitioners. This report describes the independent evaluation of the Guidelines undertaken in 2011. The evaluation mainly involved key informant and stakeholder interviews and an electronic survey of health practitioners who are the target audience for the Guidelines. The evaluation findings indicate that the Guidelines are valued highly by the broad range of health practitioners who use them and are seen by many as essential to safe practice for all practitioners who provide advice or education in nutrition. Evaluation participants were unanimous in their view that the Guidelines need to be retained, albeit in a form that is more accessible to a wider range of health practitioners and others and updated more frequently