What does a nutritional consultant do?
A Nutritional Consultant provides assistance regarding food service and nutritional programs. They help patients improve their health and control of disease.
Nutritional consultant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real nutritional consultant resumes:
- Manage the in-store dietitian program providing nutrition education, culinary workshops, food demonstrations, and nutritional assessments.
- Specialize in weight loss, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and lactose intolerance
- Provide nutrition assessments, counseling and diabetes education to visually impair population individually and in group setting.
- Ensure compliance to USDA requirements.
- Conduct BMI and weigh-ins for insurance members during health insurance out reach events.
- Help clients with food allergies and auto immune disorders to construct a healing diet.
- Participate in the MDS process, the interdisciplinary plan of care, and documentation of nutritional care in the medical record.
- Create cycle menus following USDA recommendations
- Conduct CACFP administrative compliance review of sponsoring organizations statewide.
- Provide recommendations for medical nutritional therapy in pediatric unit and pediatric ICU.
- Facilitate communication between the state agency and WIC clinic sites and other inter-departmental programs.
- Assess nutritional needs of patients to develop and implement dietary plans and provide nutritional counseling to patients
- Experience counseling pediatric patients and their parents on a general healthful diet, motivational interviewing and problem solving
- Assess, evaluate and educate patient/family members on nutrition prescriptions in the ICU, medical/surgical and telemetry units.
- Design and implement personalized exercise and diet programs targeting many chronic conditions including obesity, arthritis, diabetes and high cholesterol.
Nutritional consultant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Nutritional Consultants are proficient in Diabetes, Weight Loss, and Nutrition Assessments. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Compassion, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Nutritional Consultants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Diabetes, 9%
Lead monthly individual and group-based nutrition education and consultation to 10-20 elderly adults resulting in improved diabetes and blood pressure control.
- Weight Loss, 7%
Developed exercise and nutrition interventions for individuals to assist with weight loss.
- Nutrition Assessments, 6%
Developed and implemented nutrition education seminars; Assisted with menu planning; performed nutrition assessments; provided therapeutic diet counseling
- Food Service, 6%
Executed clinical assessments, comprehensive care plans, in-service education and food service director evaluation of performance.
- Menu Planning, 5%
Administered and observe menu planning and meal preparations through USDA regulations and guidelines for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Programs.
- Medical Nutrition Therapy, 4%
Experienced in appropriate nutrition interventions for medical nutrition therapy, includes extensive nutrition counseling.
Most nutritional consultants use their skills in "diabetes," "weight loss," and "nutrition assessments" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential nutritional consultant responsibilities here:
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a nutritional consultant to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what nutritional consultants do because "dietitians and nutritionists must keep up with food and nutrition research." Additionally, a nutritional consultant resume shows how nutritional consultants use analytical skills: "performed anthropometric measurements such as body fat analysis and bmi. "
Compassion. Another essential skill to perform nutritional consultant duties is compassion. Nutritional consultants responsibilities require that "dietitians and nutritionists must be caring and empathetic when helping clients address health and dietary issues and any related emotions." Nutritional consultants also use compassion in their role according to a real resume snippet: "awarded cares award 2014 compassion, accountability, respect, enthusiasm, service"
Listening skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of nutritional consultants is listening skills. This skill is critical to many everyday nutritional consultant duties, as "dietitians and nutritionists must listen carefully to understand clients’ goals and concerns." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "educated clients on identifying pet nutritional needs and communicated the features and benefits the products represented. "
Organizational skills. A big part of what nutritional consultants do relies on "organizational skills." You can see how essential it is to nutritional consultant responsibilities because "dietitians and nutritionists must prepare and maintain many types of records for multiple clients." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical nutritional consultant tasks: "assisted with administrative work including billing, scheduling, and organizational projects to help attain and retain patients. "
Problem-solving skills. Another common skill required for nutritional consultant responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." This skill comes up in the duties of nutritional consultants all the time, as "dietitians and nutritionists must evaluate the health status of clients and determine appropriate food choices to improve overall health or manage disease." An excerpt from a real nutritional consultant resume shows how this skill is central to what a nutritional consultant does: "discussed with pet owners what their pets health issues and special needs were to provide a nutritional solution. "
Speaking skills. Lastly, "speaking skills" is an important element of what a nutritional consultant does. Nutritional consultant responsibilities require this skill because "dietitians and nutritionists must explain complicated topics in a way that people can understand." This resume example highlights how nutritional consultant duties rely on this skill: "presented nutrition education workshops including supermarket visits and healthy cooking classes. "
The three companies that hire the most nutritional consultants are:
- PetSmart4 nutritional consultants jobs
- UnityPoint Health2 nutritional consultants jobs
- Red Star Yeast
1 nutritional consultants jobs
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Compare different nutritional consultants
Nutritional consultant vs. Food adviser
In a dietetic internship, an intern primarily performs support tasks to gain industry insights and experience while under a dietitian's directives and supervision. Their duties typically include conducting research and analyses, gathering and analyzing data from previous projects and studies, participating in the development of new meal and nutritional plans, and assisting in food delivery operations. They also take part in assessing a patient's health and treatment plans, providing nutrition education as necessary. Additionally, an intern must produce regular reports and uphold the facility's policies.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between nutritional consultants and food adviser. For instance, nutritional consultant responsibilities require skills such as "diabetes," "weight loss," "nutrition assessments," and "menu planning." Whereas a food adviser is skilled in "facility operations," "logistics," "equipment maintenance," and "food service operations." This is part of what separates the two careers.
On average, food advisers reach lower levels of education than nutritional consultants. Food advisers are 9.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Nutritional consultant vs. Dietetic internship
A clinical dietitian is responsible for providing quality nutritional care for patients by monitoring their current health conditions, advising nutritional and dietary supplements to maintain their healthy lifestyle, and speed up their recovery process. Clinical dietitians often coordinate with other medical professionals to assess food choices and develop nutrition programs for the patients. A clinical dietitian must have excellent knowledge of the medical industry to offer the best services to the patients and accurately handle their inquiries and concerns.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that nutritional consultant responsibilities requires skills like "diabetes," "food service," "nutrition services," and "nutrition programs." But a dietetic internship might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patients," "diabetes education," "oncology," and "long-term care."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Dietetic interns tend to reach similar levels of education than nutritional consultants. In fact, they're 3.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Nutritional consultant vs. Clinical dietitian
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a nutritional consultant is likely to be skilled in "nutrition assessments," "food service," "nutrition programs," and "healthy lifestyle," while a typical clinical dietitian is skilled in "patients," "patient care," "home health," and "nutrition care process."
Clinical dietitians make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $56,882. On the other hand, nutritional consultants are paid the highest salary in the agriculture industry, with average annual pay of $62,794.When it comes to education, clinical dietitians tend to earn similar degree levels compared to nutritional consultants. In fact, they're 2.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Nutritional consultant vs. Research dietitian
Types of nutritional consultant
Updated January 8, 2025
