Government of Alberta Reserves Title “Nutritionist” For Use by Regulated Members of the College of Dietitians of Alberta

The College is pleased to inform members that a recent amendment to the Health Professions Act effective earlier this summer expands the professional titles previously reserved for the use of regulated members of the College to include “Nutritionist”, “Provisional Dietitian” and “Dietetic Intern”.

While regulations expressly authorizing regulated members of the College to use these new titles have yet to be proclaimed, regulated members continue to be authorized to use titles such as “Registered Nutritionist”, “Dietitian”, “Registered Dietitian” and “R.D.”

The amended Health Professions Act now prohibits unregulated individuals and organizations from using the title “Nutritionist”, alone or in combination with other words such as in “Registered Holistic Nutritionist”, “Clinical Nutritionist” and “Natural Nutritionist”.

The College will be contacting unregulated individuals and organizations using the word “Nutritionist” alone or with other words as a professional title to advise of the recent amendments and to provide them with an opportunity to comply voluntarily.  Following a grace period to allow those unlawfully using Nutritionist to re-brand, the College will pursue legal action where necessary against individuals and organizations that do not comply.

The College will notify members when the regulations authorizing members to use the title, “Nutritionist” are proclaimed by government. If you have questions about the amendments to the Health Professions Act, the pending amendments to the Registered Dietitians and Registered Nutritionists Profession Regulation or about the enforcement of these amendments you may contact the College office.

The College forwarded a press release on September 8. You may view the press release by clicking here.