Nutrition

Nutrition Assessment

Nutrition assessment covers many topics, including the collection, harmonisation and sharing of dietary data, dietary recommendations on nutrition requirements, food composition, and the analysis of dietary data including the use of diet quality and diversity indicators. 

Nutrition assessment provides timely, high-quality, and evidence-based information for setting targets, design, planning, monitoring, and evaluating programmes aiming at eradicating hunger and reducing the burden of malnutrition in all its forms.

Global and free access to country-level information on diet and nutrition informs decision making to achieve better nutrition for all.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food and Nutrition Division provides expertise to support countries in collecting, harmonizing, and disseminating high quality information on diet and nutrition. Within this scope, we improve assessment tools including dietary diversity indicators such as the Minimum Dietary Diversity indicator for Women (MDD-W); develop countries’ capacities to collect data; and work to develop the FAO/WHO Global Individual Food consumption data Tool (FAO/WHO GIFT), a global web-based platform providing free access to country-specific nutrition information based on individual quantitative food consumption data. We provide knowledge of human energy and nutrient requirements, essential for the complete assessment of food supplies and nutritional needs and to enable governments to monitor nutrition programmes and plan development activities. Furthermore, FAO coordinates the International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS), a worldwide network of food composition experts aiming to improve the quality, availability, reliability and use of food composition data.

Learn more about our work and visit our sections on assessment tools, capacity development, food consumption, nutrition requirements and food composition.

Partners

To improve nutrition assessment tools, capacities and practices in support of better nutrition, FAO partners with many key actors at the national and international level. FAO is currently collaborating (or has previously collaborated with) on nutrition assessment initiatives and projects with: