Introduction:

Eating is a physiological act that involves social and cultural interactions. The history of hospital feeding and diet therapy has developed in parallel with medical science, based on scientific evidence.

Objective:

Analizar los cambios de la dietoterapia hospitalaria frente a los sistemas de gestión de la calidad en salud y la acreditación. To analyze the changes in hospital nutrition programsin the face ofquality management and accreditation systems.

Materials and methods:

A literature search was done in virtual databases: Pubmed, Medline, Lilacs and Google Scholar, using key words such as: diet therapy, hospital feeding and hospital food quality, and published between the years1990 and 2016.

Results and discussion:

In the last three decades hospitals have adjusted to globalization, to quality control systems, and to patient safety policies. The quality of hospital nutrition programs coupled with the clinical condition of the patient may be a cause of decrease in nutrient consumption and hospital malnutrition, which leads to increases in length of stay and health costs. Conclusions: The techniques of the food industry together with hospital dietetics have promoted the continuous improvement of quality control processes that demand accreditation standards in healthcare and the same competence in the entire health sector.

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