Abstract
Mealtimes in early learning settings are more than a routine to help children eat. They are important opportunities for connection, learning and development, and for supporting children’s confidence and comfort around food and eating. At the same time, services must balance safety, regulatory requirements, diverse developmental and cultural needs, family expectations and practical constraints such as time and staffing.
The Mealtime Environment and Practices (MEP) module has been developed to support Early Childhood Education and Care settings (ECEC), for children from birth to 5 years, to create mealtimes that are safe, calm, inclusive and responsive to each child, while reflecting current evidence and the needs of the sector. This module aims to:
Provide ECEC services guidance on safety standards in mealtime environments and practices, and support ECEC services to ensure food safety standards in mealtime environments and practices.
Shift the focus of mealtimes from a care routine to a space and time for learning and development.
To support ECEC staff to understand children’s developmental pathways and adapt mealtime routines and environments to reflect each child’s readiness, preferences, and way of engaging with food.
Provide support to educators and services on how to encourage self-regulation in eating.
Provide a Best Practice Guide based on current evidence and current needs of the ECEC sector and supporting the public health sector.
Provide recommendations that are informed by an understanding of child development, and the impact of anxiety on food preferences and eating skills for a variety of reasons, including food allergy, trauma, neurodivergence, and disabilities.
Keywords
early childhood education, mealtimes, mealtime environments, mealtime practice, self-regulation in eating, public health, child development, food preferences, eating skills, Artichoke Model
Document Type
Other
Date of Publication
2026
Type of File
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Version
1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Copyright
© Edith Cowan University 2026
Content Type
Full object
First Page
1
Last Page
80
Recommended Citation
Mealtime Environment and Practices Consortium. (2026). The best practice guide for early childhood education and care food environment: Module 1: Mealtime environment and practices (Version 1.0). Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. https://doi.org/10.25958/k04c-5720