Dietitians Australia call on Federal Government to overhaul ECEC nutrition rules 

Dietitians Australia is urging the Federal Government to urgently overhaul the food and nutrition standards and supporting guidance within the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care, to give Australian families peace of mind their children are not at risk of ‘nutrition neglect’ when attending centres.

The calls come in the wake of a recent ABC investigation into Australian ECEC services which found, in part, some concerning practices both in terms of the allocated budget for feeding children and with inconsistencies between what was shown on the menu versus what was fed to the children. 

“We currently have a haphazard approach to nutrition standards in ECEC in Australia,” Dietitians Australia President Dr Fiona Willer said, noting that close to one million children attend Australian ECEC services or family based settings which provide food. 

“Depending on which State or Territory you live in, or which centre your child attends, the food they are served on-site may or may not be nutritious,” she continued.

“The existing National Quality Framework for ECEC provides limited guidance for providers when it comes to food and nutrition, leading to varied interpretations and confusion among centre staff and for those that are tasked with regulating services. In the more extreme cases, this puts us in a situation where Australian children are at risk of being exposed to harmful food allergens, swallowing or even choking incidents as a result of unsafe food practices.”

Dr Willer said the current system is failing both the services and the parents who use them, leading her to call for more prescriptive regulation, benchmarked food service training and on-the-ground support from accredited practising dietitians to all services nationally. 

“Safe mealtimes and quality nutrition should be the minimum standard in ECEC,” she continued. “Our children must be protected and deserve nourishing meals delivered with consistency and care.”

“These mealtimes are about more than just nutrition—they shape children’s lifelong relationship with food, influence their capacity to learn and develop, and impact broader health and developmental outcomes.”

Chair of the National Nutrition Network for Early Childhood Education and Care and senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University Dr Ros Sambell took care to note the incredible examples of  providers attempting to provide the best possible nutrition outcomes for children in their care when commenting on the calls. 

Despite these examples, however, she conceded that ECEC services often struggle to understand their obligations when it comes to the food environment, agreeing that a robust regulatory overhaul is needed to bring everyone up to best practice standards that Australian children deserve.

Dietitians Australia and the National Nutrition Network for ECEC stand ready to collaborate with Governments to ensure that Australian children in ECEC receive the nutrition foundations they deserve for optimal growth, learning and long-term health.