A study carried out by the School Food Trust concluded that early years food and nutrition guidance for England, published in 2005, is "out of date" and relates to 2001 standards - it noted that the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had updated its guidance more recently.
"This guidance needs to be updated to reflect current legislation and signpost early years providers to current authoritative information," the report said.
It added that there was no single source of healthy eating guidance that was viewed as authoritative.
"There is a large amount of food, nutrition and healthy eating guidance being produced by a number of government and other departments at national, regional and local levels - this highlights the need for more comprehensive, coherent food and nutrition guidance that can be accessed easily and appropriately delivered by all early years settings in England," the report said.
The research concluded that limitations and gaps in current food and nutrition guidance included: information about portion sizes; special diets; use of additives and supplements; concise and consistent parental advice on healthy eating for pre-school children; and coherent development of local authority policies supporting early years nutrition.
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