Professor Jim Mann, EDOR Co-Director, has been interviewed by journalist Niki Bezzant for the NZ Listener, about the urgent need for an updated national nutrition survey in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Government and industry alike depend on accurate information about what their populations are eating to inform important decision making. However New Zealand's national nutrition data are now two decades old, with the most recent child nutrition survey completed in 2003 and for adults in 2009.
Most countries carry out rolling or regular nutrition surveys of their populations, to ensure the policies that depend on those data are fit for purpose. While electronic tools have been developed to enable an updated New Zealand national nutrition survey to be completed, the current government do not see a national nutrition survey as a health priority.
With the estimated cost of such a survey being roughly the same as “one medium-sized traffic roundabout,” Professor Mann and others believe that the value of this information far outweighs the cost.
"When you consider there is a huge body of evidence showing what we eat is the number one contributor to the overall burden of ill health, it is nonsensical to say this is not a priority,” says Professor Mann.
Read the Listener article
Dining in the dark: how outdated nutrition data is undermining public health. Niki Bezzant, NZ Listener, 19 April, 2025 (subscription only)