This role statement was developed by members of the Corporate Nutrition Interest Group.

It lists the knowledge and skills of an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) working in the food sector practice area.

Knowledge

• Food and nutrition-related policies and regulations including the Food Standards Code, Australian Consumer Law and nutrition-related public health policy.
• Front of Pack labelling systems and their application (for example, Health Star Rating).
• Food manufacturing and the commercial aspects of the food system.
• Food science and technology, gastronomy and the culinary arts (for example, how ingredients influence the taste, quality, price and shelf life of a food or beverage).
• Insight into the local and global food environment including customer attitudes and behaviours, dietary trends and new product innovation.
• The environmental impact of dietary patterns and foods.

Skills

• Build advocacy for health by working with management to influence business priorities and embed health within key business activities.
• Develop nutrition strategies that aim to support Australians in making healthier choices.
• Provide scientific and regulatory advice on product development, marketing and communications.
• Prepare industry position statements, submissions and briefings on health and nutrition policy and regulatory issues.
• Translate nutrition research into meaningful insights that can be used to educate internal teams and the public.
• Engage and collaborate with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders to take action on identified nutrition and food supply issues.

Activities entry level APDs would conduct

• Review packaging, promotional and advertising material for compliance with the Food Standards Code and the Australian Consumer Law.
• Support internal teams in making new and existing products healthier.
• Conduct nutrition analysis of food products and recipes.
• Develop nutrition communication materials for internal and external communications.
• Review and summarise relevant scientific research on population health, food manufacturing and the retail environment.
• Plan and implement nutrition education sessions, tools and resources that support employees in making healthier choices at home and in their workplace.

Activities APDs working at a higher level would conduct

• Lead internal and collaborative advocacy to raise the profile of health and ensure it is an organisational priority.
• Develop, implement, manage and evaluate health and nutrition strategies.
• Lead health and nutrition communications across traditional and digital media channels.
• Ensure food and beverage product innovation and reformulation is aligned to government and/or internal nutrition targets and guidelines.
• Develop evidence-based, legally compliant nutrition and health claims and substantiation.
• Engage and collaborate with external stakeholders and organisations on policies, programs and strategies to improve population health.

Activities APDs working in this area of practice do not usually undertake

• Individual patient clinical consultation.

For more, download the full role statement. The full statement includes a list of document references.