Foodvalley NL highlights potential “disruptive innovations” to unlock healthier foods

24 Jul 2023 --- Foodvalley NL aims to transition the food system to increase the offer of healthier products, for which it recently received a project grant from the Dutch government. In this second of our two-part interview on the organization’s Healthier Food – Innovate for Good Community, we look at F&B suppliers’ opportunities and challenges to offer more nutritious foods. 

The healthier food community aims to develop partnerships and initiatives that target ecosystem challenges – issues that individual stakeholders cannot solve but must be addressed to create a more nutritious food offer. It is part of the food and health innovation area at Foodvalley NL – an independent organization that aims to accelerate the transition of the food system.

“It’s our dream that in 2030 not [the current] 80% of the product assortment offered is unhealthy, but that it sees a significant drop to 50%,” Judith van der Horst, innovation lead of food and health at Foodvalley NL, tells Nutrition Insight. 

She observes that changes are needed on both the supply and demand side, urging consumers to continue to ask for healthier products supported by a thriving food industry that drives the development of healthy and tasty products.

Disruptive innovations 
Van Der Horst explains that as part of its initiatives, the healthier food community will focus on reformulating existing products and supporting disruptive innovations. In this project, Foodvalley NL will build partnerships with stakeholders and launch initiatives that lead to viable business models. 

“To develop a healthy food offer, we should continue reformulating on sugar, salt, fat and fiber levels, but we should also support organizations and start-ups with disruptive new product developments.” 

Van Der Horst hopes that by 2030 at least 50% of the product assortment will contribute to health. “If you want to renovate or reformulate products, there’s always the comparison with the product we’re used to. So, the focus is on decreasing sugar and salt levels and increasing fibers.” 

“However, there’s a huge market for completely new products developed from scratch,” she stresses. 

For such new products, consumers will not compare them to existing ones, allowing companies to establish entirely new markets. 

Although they currently represent a niche market segment, Van Der Horst sees these new segments starting up. “That’s what I think should be the way forward, to be disruptive in the food system and help create a healthier food environment.” 

Van Der Horst adds that Foodvalley NL ensures these pioneers find the right partners in its healthier food community, increasing their access to knowledge, resources and entrepreneurship programs to accelerate viable business models in these new product developments. 

Healthier products 
In the Netherlands, people consume around one-third to one-half of the fruit and vegetable intake dietary guidelines recommend. 

Van Der Horst stresses that if consumers would eat more toward national recommendations, this could have substantial health benefits, potentially decreasing the incidence of lifestyle-related diseases and mortality, for example, due to cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. 

She observes upcoming products in the market that help boost people’s daily produce consumption, such as healthy snacking products based on peas, lentils or other pulses seasoned with herbs, at lower salt and fat contents and higher protein levels. 

Though these are processed products at a fairly high price, Van Der Horst emphasizes their importance as consumers can easily fit these into their daily routines. 

“People may not eat [vegetables] for breakfast, but if it’s in a convenient product, with a very nice taste and if you can find ways of scaling to bring the price down, you can make it easier for consumers to increase their vegetable consumption.” 

Through partnerships and initiatives, the healthier food community will tackle ecosystem challenges.She notes that increasing consumer intake of fruit, vegetables and whole grain fibers would be a massive achievement. 

For example, researchers recently predicted that a US national produce prescription program could prevent 296,000 cases of cardiovascular diseases and save the country around US$39.6 billion in healthcare spending and US$4.8 billion in lost productivity costs over a lifetime.

Ecosystem challenges 
Meanwhile, companies wanting to create healthier food products run into ecosystem challenges. The organization is conducting an extensive analysis by interviewing a range of stakeholders to determine which challenges they run into. 

Van Der Horst notes that companies often have difficulty scaling, especially for those developing disruptive innovations, as they target entirely new markets and segments. In its healthier food community, Foodvalley NL will bring companies together and help them connect with other essential players in the ecosystem. 

“The playing field is bigger than they see themselves,” she continues. “One of the ecosystem challenges is that [companies] think they have a good product-market fit, and that’s not always the case if they don’t see the whole ecosystem.”

She stresses that companies must build a consumer orientation into their business model for a good product-market fit, as they will decide whether to buy a new product. This may be more difficult for new companies. 

The healthier food community also aims to support companies to build coalitions that can help them to review their product-market fit and increase a customer-centric orientation.

By Jolanda van Hal