The Nutrition Area of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - CAPES, created on June 06, 2011, focuses on the broad commitment with Food and Nutrition, in its biological, clinical and social aspects.

UFRN's initiative in creating the first Academic Master's Degree in Nutrition in Rio Grande do Norte, integrates the challenge of strengthening the Brazilian stricto sensu graduate training in the scientific field of Food and Nutrition. In this scenario, the relevance and regional impact of a Graduate Program in Nutrition (PPGNUT) emerge aligned with the need to train/educate higher education lecturers/professors, as well as to train professionals for technical-scientific assistance in public agencies.

The PPGNUT was approved by the Commission of Evaluation of the Nutrition field and by CAPES’s Technical-Scientific Council (CTC), on December 10, 2013, having an area of concentration - Nutrition and two lines of research: Diagnosis and nutritional intervention and Food Quality.

The line “NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTION DIAGNOSIS” encompasses: (a) epidemiological studies on the nutritional status and on the risk factors for chronic diseases in populations with different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, (b) experimental and clinical studies with healthy or sick individuals including nutritional and lifestyle interventions, the nutritional status of micronutrients, and (c) nutritional genomics.

The line “FOOD QUALITY” comprises the projects that involve: (a) exploitation and analysis of raw materials and waste; evaluation of the quality of processed foods; (b) obtaining, characterizing and evaluating the metabolic effects of bioactive compounds, diets and/or foods; (c) hygiene-sanitary control of food in commercial and collective productive processes.

The masters trained/educated in the line of research “Nutritional diagnosis and intervention” will be qualified to act based on the understanding of epidemiological studies on the nutritional status and on risk factors of chronic diseases in individuals and populations. In this way, these masters will be able to propose nutritional interventions. It also adds to this qualification the specific knowledge about micronutrients and nutritional genomics, elements that add a differentiated practice in the resolution of nutritional problems.

The masters trained/educated in the line of research “Food Quality” will be qualified to work on the utilization of regional food resources, the evaluation of the quality of processed foods, the characterization and functionality of bioactive compounds, diets and/or foods; as well as in hygiene-sanitary control of food.

The faculty of the PPGNUT consists of 12 permanent professors and 02 collaborators working in the Departments of Nutrition, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Clinical and Toxicological Analyses and Chemical Engineering of UFRN, Natal-RN; Faculty of Health Sciences of Trairi (FACISA), Santa Cruz-RN and Federal Rural University of the Semi-arid - UFERSA, Mossoró-RN.

It should be noted, however, that the existence of a graduate program in Nutrition at UFRN will bring together a critical mass of researchers to develop research aimed at exploring and optimizing the utilization of regional food resources, as well as those focused on the diagnosis and nutritional intervention of individuals and populations. PPGNUT’s goal combines social responsibility indicators of UFRN that will contribute to the development and innovation in Rio Grande do Norte, in accordance with the public policies of the country.

E-mail: ppgnut@ccs.ufrn.br

Phone: (84) 3342-2291- Extension 335