Virtual Issues
Food service and systems research: A topical anthology
27 November 2024
Food and its enjoyment is the ultimate tool for promoting good nutrition. Within organisations and institutions, food service systems encompass the purchase, preparation, delivery and evaluation of foods as meals, beverages, and snacks. This virtual issue of the journal aims to provide ready access to the growing body of food service and systems research for dietitians to use as an evidence base for food service decisions. Research papers included in this virtual issue span waste reduction, environmental sustainability, consumer trust, food service reorganisation, and food hygiene, across the hospital, aged care, food retail, and sport settings.
Infants and Children
23 March 2022
Childhood is a pivotal time for growth and development, with food habits being defined during this period. Nutrition plays a role throughout each developmental and growth stage, from the first 1000 days right through adolescence. Evidence for optimal nutrition care in children is vast, and spans health and illness across a range of settings. This virtual issue, prepared especially for Dietitians Week 2022, aims to support dietitians practising in all areas of childhood nutrition. From neonatal care, breastfeeding and complementary feeding, intake in Indigenous Australian children, through to childcare settings and beyond, this virtual issue provides access to papers across childhood nutrition practice.
Aged Care
20 January 2021
The nutrition issues in aged care have received considerable press in recent years. Whilst in Australia we await the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (due Feb 2021), there is considerable evidence published in Nutrition & Dietetics that can inform future practice for consumers, staff working across the aged care sector, and, of course, nutrition professionals.
This virtual issue provides access to a recently published collection of peer-reviewed evidence to support future nutrition care in the aged care sector. The collection includes papers exploring food choice and National Meal Guidelines, the provision of high-quality food services in residential aged care facilities, and several key clinical conditions, including diabetes and malnutrition.
Malnutrition
5 October 2020
The wicked problem of malnutrition remains an ongoing priority for nutrition and dietetics research, particularly with population ageing. The focus though is shifting, from measuring the prevalence and impact of malnutrition, to how to identify and treat malnutrition across the continuum of care within finite dietetics resources. This virtual issue features a number of recently published papers in Nutrition & Dietetics that highlight new ways to identify and diagnose malnutrition, implement systems of malnutrition care, and ensure that malnutrition is managed as people transition from hospital to home.
Driving change
Research plays a fundamental role in driving change in all domains of nutrition and dietetics including clinical dietetics and education, community and public health nutrition and food services. This virtual issue features a number of recently published papers in Nutrition & Dietetics that demonstrate the evolution of ideas and innovations into practice. The authors do this by tackling complex nutrition-related issues such as food security and food service for the elderly; they advance future practice by trialling potential applications in nutrigenomics, nutrition informatics and web-based technologies; and they create new opportunities in nutrition policy, general practice, dietetic education, and in schools.
