There is little information regarding the compliance of the ESPEN guidelines by health professionals. This survey aims to assess the compliance to these guidelines by the ESPEN members.Structured questionnaires were emailed to ESPEN members to collect information on: a) characteristics of the responders (demographic items, affiliations, practical/scientific involvement in clinical nutrition); b) satisfaction and compliance with grade A recommendations of 10 pathologic areas reported in the ESPEN guidelines; c) missing/poorly-represented issues; d) suggestions to improve the quality of future guidelines.There were 131 responders (81% from Europe). Compliance in distinct pathologic areas was 77% on average and ranged from 66% (intensive care) to 85% (renal diseases). Surgery, intensive care and liver diseases had the higher number of disregarded recommendations and experts/specialists were somewhat more likely to disagree with them. Missing/underrepresented issues were more frequent in intensive care area followed by geriatrics. Half of responders would appreciate a second option, should the grade A recommendation be impossible to follow.ESPEN guidelines were generally well acknowledged by the users despite disagreement and dissatisfaction with a few of them. This survey provides the cue to complete/improve future guidelines and to address the research to more crucial issues.