Objective　To analyze the implementation effect of formative assessment in nutri-tion and food hygiene. Methods　55 students of Class One from grade 2010 majoring in preventive medicine were taken as the control group， with 56 students of Class Two as the experimental group. The control group used the summative assessment， while the experimental group used the formative assessment. Results were analyzed by course examinations and questionnaire surveys. SPSS 17.0 soft-ware was used and the measurement data were expressed by x±s. Statistical analysis was performed using t test， test， rank sum test， a Yuan linear correlation analysis， with the level of test ?琢=0.05. Results　The experimental scores and final scores of experimental group students were significantly higher than the control group and the difference was statistically significant（P values were 0.001， 0.000）. The experimental group's overall result is closer to the negative skewed distribution. The ex-perimental group's average score of 89 points is significantly higher than the control group's average score of 79 points（P<0.01）， and the usual results and the final results were positively correlated（r=0.865， P<0.001）. The survey indicated that the students recognized the application of formative assess-ment in teaching process. Conclusion　Formative assessment can help improve the teaching and learning quality in nutrition and food hygiene.