Menu Assessment in Early Childhood Education and Care: A Conversation With Australian Early Childhood Nutrition Professionals

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services that provide food play a crucial role in the nutritional health of the children they care for. However, the wording of the standards, regulations and guidelines to support nutritious food provision in Australian ECECs are open to interpretation. The menu assessment process is also resource intensive and inconsistently managed across jurisdictions (e.g., free government service in some jurisdictions and fee-for-service through not-for-profit or private business elsewhere). This study explores how Australian nutrition professionals manage the menu assessment process in different jurisdictions and their level of support for developing a nationally consistent, simplified menu assessment process. METHODS: Australian early childhood nutrition professionals with experience in conducting ECEC menu assessments or developing nutrition guidelines for this setting were eligible for this study. Participants were identified through convenience and snowball sampling. Semi-structured online interviews, each lasting 45 min, were conducted. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and thematic analysis performed using inductive and deductive coding. RESULTS: Thirteen early childhood nutrition professionals working in Australia participated, with at least one representative from each jurisdiction. The study found significant variation in menu assessment processes despite nutrition professionals following similar guidelines. Respondents highlighted the perceived aspirational nature of the nutrition guidelines, barriers to achieving them, such as cost, literacy and computer literacy, and possible benefits of simplified assessment tools and methods. The study also identified other themes such as the importance of responsive feeding and consideration of the broader food environment. CONCLUSIONS: Current processes for conducting ECEC menu assessments vary across Australia. There was consensus among the ECEC nutrition professionals interviewed for developing a nationally consistent, simplified menu assessment process. SO WHAT?: A nationally consistent, simplified menu assessment process could improve the quality of food provision in ECEC services, reduce the current resource-intensive and inconsistent approaches across jurisdictions and strengthen nutrition outcomes for the children in their care. This research will inform future menu assessment processes in Tasmania.