Career Prospects

A variety of employment opportunities are open to qualified nutritionists and dieteticians. The majority find posts in hospitals, schools, colleges and industrial or institutional canteens. Others work for various government departments or as programme consultants to non-government organizations like UNICEF, WHO, NPCCED. 

Some dieticians work in the Home Economics divisions of food, equipment and utility companies. This work usually involves promoting a product, developing recipes, providing nutrition-related information regarding the company's product, and maintaining experimental kitchens. 

Lately, many health clinics have mushroomed, which require the services of nutritionists/dieticians. Self-employment also offers some scope to professionals as freelance consultants, fast-food entrepreneurs and large scale, door-to-door or party-catering services.



The physiological and cultural importance of food makes people's eating habits the hardest of all to change. Even the slightest modification in a patient/client's diet requires a great deal of effort and motivation on the part of the counseling professional. 

Pressures

For those concerned with public health nutrition, the task is enormous and fraught with the additional complications of tackling poverty, a large population and various socio-economic problems. All in all, this is a job that involves long, hard hours of work on the one hand, and yields very slow results on the other.

Future Prospects

Nutritionists and dieticians have been, and will continue to be, an integral component of health care services as well as public health nutrition programmes. Moreover, the recent interest in health and fitness, resulting in the mushrooming of health clinics all over the country, has greatly expanded the scope of the profession. 

This, together with a booming commercial food services industry, will ensure that nutrition and dietetics professionals with the right qualifications will never need to confront the problem of unemployment.

Related Careers

Catering science, food science and technology, biochemistry, home economics, medicine.