Food and nutrition security approach in Brazilian federal universities’ curricula: core aspects

Abstract

Nutritionists are key for individual and collective health promotion focused on achieving Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) policies, which in Brazil focuses on the human right to adequate food (HRAF) and includes guidelines for itself, for food sovereignty, and its systemic approach. The nutritionist’s training must include content that promotes adequate and healthy food, following SUS principles from the perspective of FNS. This study analyzes 27 pedagogical projects of the Nutrition course from federal universities in the five regions of Brazil to identify how the FNS appears in Nutrition curricula and functions as an element for constructing a professional profile. The results showed that, although most curricula comply with the national curriculum guidelines regarding the expected profile for graduates, the subject is addressed by a restricted number of disciplines, indicating a low representativeness of FNS content regarding interdisciplinary content. Strengthening the subject during training thus reflects on these professionals’ performance in daily life.