The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) established vitamin and mineral requirements for all age groups in 2004. Since this time, new data have emerged suggesting that requirements for some micronutrients may need to be updated, particularly for children. Therefore, and in part to inform the planned updating of WHO guidance on complementary feeding, the FAO Nutrition and Food Systems Division (ESN) and the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS) have initiated work on updating nutrient requirements for children aged 0–36 months, following the WHO guideline development process and in line with Article 6 of the FAO Constitution.
In the planning phase of this work, WHO conducted an initial review of the recent scientific literature on nutrient requirements, and compiled national dietary guidelines from all regions, extracting all relevant information about nutrient requirements in the age group of interest. Using the data obtained from this preparatory work, FAO and WHO were able to prioritize the nutrients to be updated. The first nutrients to be updated will be calcium, vitamin D, and zinc.
An expert group has been established to carry out the work of updating the nutrient requirements and completed Phase I of the work in May 2020. Phase I consisted of reviewing the results of scoping reviews and other background documents and defining the scope of the work to be undertaken, including the development of key questions and prioritized health outcomes that will guide systematic reviews, which will in turn serve as the evidence base on which requirements will be derived.
As part of the process of updating the nutrient requirements, WHO Member States and all relevant stakeholders were invited to comment on the key questions developed in Phase I of this work. The public consultation was open from 25 June to 31 July 2020.