Objective:

Bibliometric and thematic analysis of scientific production on occupational health related to nutrition, food and diet indexed in MEDLINE.

Method:

Cross-sectional study. The data were obtained from the MEDLINE database (PubMed). The search equation was “Diet, Food, and Nutrition”[Mesh] AND “Occupational Health”[Mesh] AND “HUMANS”[MeSH Terms]. The main bibliometric indicators were analysed. The search was segmented by epochs (first period from the year 1949 to 2008 and second period from 2009 to 2017). Search date: February 2018.

Results:

386 references were analysed. The original number was 229 (59.3%), identifying 248 institutions and collaboration index of 4.0 ± 2.9 authors / article, being 16 the maximum and 2015 the year of highest production. The average of documents was 15.6 years and the Price Index 28.5%. The United States of America was the main geographical distribution area with 115 works, being English the dominant language in 286 articles. 233 journals were retrieved. There was free access to 126 articles. There were significant differences between the indicators analysed by epochs.

Conclusions:

Existence of relative obsolescence, Anglophone orientation and American affiliation. It is an institutional author collaboration which is limited and outstanding, with wide free access to the primary document and irregular impact publications. The bibliometric indicators were clearly improved from the year 2008. The thematic classification complied with the researched subject. The thematic is still under development due to the potential benefits for workers, companies and governments.