Abstract
Objectives
Recently, there has been an increasing focus on nutrition in international health cooperation. However, little attention has been paid on global nutrition issues and their methodologies in Japan. One of the possible reasons is that the whole picture cannot be clearly grasped, because nutrition issues and actions have been considered separately at international organizations such as WHO, FAO, and UNICEF. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the trends in food and nutrition policy framework, dietary recommendations and nutritional requirements formulated by international organizations through a review of published nutrition policy guidelines and standards since the 1990s.
Method
Policy guidelines, technical reports, annual reports, and other relevant materials published between 1990 and 2015, available on the WHO, FAO and UNICEF websites, were reviewed. Then, we extracted the study focused on nutrition problems and their solutions. The purpose and contents of each document and guidelines were identified and categorized in a summary table, so as to investigate their feasures and time trend.
Results
This study identified 22 statements on food and nutrition policy frameworks, 14 dietary recommendations and nutritional requirements, and 5 information systems. It was revealed that, in the 1990s, the focus was to develop and standardize the methods for nutritional assessment of children. The goal during this period was to achieve food-based security through improvement in energy and nutrient intakes such as proteins and vitamin A, so as to reduce severe child malnutrition and maternal mortality. Later, various recommendations were formulated on double burden of malnutrition, the importance of breastfeeding and the context of the food system and nutrition in the 2000s, and on noncommunicable disease prevention and control policies and practical methodologies to reduce nutrition disparities after 2010. Several information systems were established, which have been utilized as the evidence database to develop policy frameworks.
