Regulation or Education?: How Are Provision of Food and Mealtime Practices Represented in Australia's National Quality Standards for Early Education and Care

Introduction Nutrition is important for early childhood health and development. During this time, a large majority of children across developed nations attend Early Education and Care (ECEC) services. Method This study utilises Bacchi's What is the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach to analyse representations of food and mealtimes in Australia's National Quality Standard (NQS). Results Four problems are identified: (i) Children have suboptimal diets; (ii) children and families make unhealthy food choices; (iii) children lack nutrition knowledge; and (iv) childcare settings carry a high risk of food contamination. Conclusion Deep‐seated presuppositions are identified as underlying the problems. These include the idea that food is risky and that children's good health is a personal responsibility to be reinforced by educators. Additionally, a deficit in parent nutrition knowledge is assumed and remediation through education is advocated. Implications for children, families and ECEC services are discussed and suggestions for alternative representations of the ‘problem’ as one of learning opportunity are presented.