Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) faces a critical information gap on what New Zealanders eat and our overall nutritional status due to a lack of recent national nutrition surveys.
The last adult nutrition survey was conducted in 2008/09 and the most recent children’s survey dates from 2002. With these decades-old statistics, NZ is essentially flying blind when it comes to knowing what and how people are eating and hence how best to improve population eating habits, nutrition and health.
We outline why a new national nutrition survey is needed and how the government, food industry, and public health typically use survey data. We also highlight the tools and methods available for a new NZ survey and put the potential costs in context.