INTRODUCTION:

Dietitians are health professionals who understand the context in which nutrition and food are processed, and must be technically competent, critical and committed to the existing reality. Issues related to food sustainability apply to all areas of nutrition and dietetics, especially in foodservice, and it is necessary to value the attributions and contributions of dietitians in promoting a quality future.

OBJECTIVES:

To describe the perception of dietitians working in foodservice about their role in promoting food sustainability.

METHODOLOGY:

Cross-sectional study, in which an online questionnaire was applied to the target population. A non-random sampling technique selected for convenience was used. The sample of this study is composed of dietitians, residing in Portugal and currently working in the field of nutrition. Data were summarized through absolute and relative frequencies, and through mean, standard deviation, median and interquartile range. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to analyze the adherence of the variables under study to the normal distribution and, according to the results, the Mann-Whitney test was used for comparison between groups.

RESULTS:

Of the 115 participants, 48.7% consider it important to promote food sustainability in their work and 46.1% consider that they have the possibility of improving their work. The concepts that dietitians most relate to food sustainability are the reduction of food waste, preservation of the environment and natural resources. The main actions taken consisted of promoting the Mediterranean Diet and reducing food waste. There were statistically significant differences between the difficulties and actions of dietitians who work in food services and those who do not.

CONCLUSIONS:

The results show that the participants believe in their ability to put sustainable actions into practice and reinforce the need to recognize and train dietitians as important promoters of food sustainability.

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