Early childhood is a critical stage for nutrition promotion, and childcare settings have
the potential for wide-reaching impact on food intake. There are currently no Australian national
guidelines for childcare food provision, and the comparability of existing guidelines across jurisdictions
is unknown. This project aimed to map and compare childcare food provision guidelines and to explore
perspectives amongst early childhood nutrition experts for alignment of jurisdictional childcare food
provision guidelines with the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG). A desktop review was conducted
and formed the basis of an online survey. A national convenience sample of childhood nutrition
experts was surveyed. Existing guideline recommendations for food group serving quantities were
similar across jurisdictions but contained many minor differences. Of the 49 survey respondents,
most (84–100%) agreed with aligning food group provision recommendations to provide at least 50%
of the recommended ADG serves for children. Most (94%) agreed that discretionary foods should
be offered less than once per month or never. Jurisdictional childcare food provision guidelines do
not currently align, raising challenges for national accreditation and the provision of support and
resources for services across jurisdictions. Childhood nutrition experts support national alignment of
food provision guidelines with the ADG. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32957687/
Childcare Food Provision Recommendations Vary across Australia: Jurisdictional Comparison and Nutrition Expert Perspectives
