Objetivos: Analisar as ações de educação alimentar e nutricional no Brasil e ampliar nossa compreensão sobre sua aplicação nas escolas. Métodos: Estudo exploratório transversal que utilizou banco de dados secundário obtido do Prêmio de Gestor Eficiente da Merenda Escolar, de 2010. Participaram do prêmio, neste ano, 786 municípios. As variáveis relacionadas à Educação Alimentar e Nutricional foram: execução de ações e as estratégias teórico-metodológicas utilizadas para realizá-las. Utilizou-se estatística descritiva com o teste Qui-quadrado de Pearson para dados quantitativos e o método de Análise de Conteúdo para dados qualitativos. Resultados: A maioria relatou a execução de hortas pedagógicas e uso de alimentos da agricultura familiar, principalmente na Região Sul do Brasil, com diferença estatisticamente significante (p <0,05). Discussão: Houve predomínio de métodos passivos e ações pontuais na implementação da educação alimentar e nutricional nas cidades brasileiras, assim como a valorização da nutrição (nutrientes e funções) em detrimento da alimentação e da cultura alimentar local. Conclusões: A implementação de metodologias ativas com abordagem integral à alimentação deve ser estimulada no ambiente escolar. A experiência do Programa pode ser importante para a implementação de diretrizes para a educação alimentar e nutricional e sua execução em escolas. DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2019.38748

Keywords: Food and Nutrition Education. National School Feeding Program. School Garden. Public Health Policy.The National School Feeding Program -NSFP is the public health policy that guarantees the minimum supply of healthy food and offers space for the construction of healthy eating habits in Brazilian schools. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the presence of Food and Nutrition Education (FNE) actions within the framework of the NSFP to verify its adequacy toward the program's legislation and to investigate which parameters are predictors of running school gardens. This was a cross-sectional observational study using secondary data obtained from the database of the Efficient School Lunch Management Award for the year 2010, with a sample of 749 municipalities in Brazil. A binary logistic regression was performed, considering the running of school gardens as a dependent variable, and the FNE indicators and the demographic variables as independent. The model containing the presence of FNE in the school curriculum was significant (p<0.001). The presence of FNE in school curricula OR=2.406;95%CI=[1.725, 3.357] was the most significant predictor of running school gardens, followed by the use of food from family farms OR=2.049;95%CI=[1.477, 2.842] and the carrying out of culinary workshops OR=2.032;95%CI=[1.442; 2.863], considering p<0.05. The presence of FNE in the school curriculum was positively associated with growing vegetable gardens, showing that complex actions that require more resources can be stimulated from simpler measures, and the NSFP as a public health policy is an important tool to promote actions throughout the national territory.

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Objective To make a critical and comparative analysis of curricula of Brazilian and Portuguese higher education institutions in terms of clock hours and semester distribution of food and nutrition education in undergraduate nutrition programs, also assessing the main differences among courses classified into thematic axes and professional practice areas. Methods The curricula of fifteen Brazilian and eleven Portuguese nutrition programs were collected and classified into thematic axes and professional practice areas with the method of Document Analysis. Next, we performed statistical analysis regarding the total and proportional clock hours of instruction and their semester distribution to assess the differences between the two countries. The variables of interest were the hours of Food and Nutrition Education and their semester distribution. Results The Food and Nutrition Education axis was the second smallest one, with statistically significant differences among the axes (2.2% of curricula; p<0.001). Brazilian higher education institutions showed greater total clock hours of Food and Nutrition Education (p=0.018), Human and Social Sciences (p=0.003), Public Health (p<0.001), as well as a wider dispersion and lower relative weighted mean for the semester offering of courses (p=0.004) of Food and Nutrition Education courses. Portuguese higher education institutions showed greater total and proportional clock hours of instruction for Exact Sciences (p<0.005; p=0.001, respectively) and more proportional hours of Biologic and Health Sciences (p<0.001). Conclusion Our study found a reduced presence of the area of Food and Nutrition Education in the undergraduate training of nutritionists in both countries.