Dietary guidelines: the development process in Australia and New Zealand

There is increasing pressure on those developing public health guidelines such as the US Dietary Guidelines to take an evidence-based approach to review of the literature that is increasingly used for clinical practice guidelines. While the public health arena poses a number of problems in terms of the types of evidence available in many instances, one of the consequences of a move to an evidence-based approach will be an increased demand on time and resources. Different countries have varying approaches to the development of dietary guidelines. This paper outlines the approaches used in Australia and New Zealand. It highlights the dependence on the goodwill of academics and other health professionals with limited capacity to undertake major, structured, evidence-based review of the extensive literature relevant to dietary guideline development. It further highlights the potential value of cross-country collaboration in establishing and maintaining a centralized, accessible evidence base for development or review of dietary guidelines.