Foodvalley NL uncovers industry-wide obstacles to a healthier F&B assortment

11 Dec 2023 --- In its quest to make the “healthy choice the easy choice,” Foodvalley NL has identified six crucial roadblocks hindering a healthier food and beverage offering. Addressing these requires collective action from stakeholders across the ecosystem. Through collective action and initiatives, partners will tackle these challenges as part of Foodvalley’s Healthier Food — Innovate for Good Community, with the kick-off meeting planned for February 2024.

During a pre-community meeting, Foodvalley — a non-profit working toward a healthier, more sustainable food system — discussed the research’s outcomes, the impact the Healthier Food Community will seek to make and with which concrete, practical initiatives to start. 

Nutrition Insight meets with Judith van der Horst-Graat, innovation lead of food and health at Foodvalley, to discuss the roadblocks identified and the next steps for the Healthier Food Community. 

“Our ambition is that 50% of the food and beverage products offered, at any point of sale, contributes to health,” emphasizes Van Der Horst-Graat. “The Healthier Food Community has become synonymous with this ambition, and participants in the pre-community meeting are eager to work on concrete initiatives to achieve it.”

The six roadblocks cover engrained consumer behavior, commercial constraints, rules and regulations, the need for more skills to scale up, limited access to quality R&D and a hesitancy to apply new technologies and reformulation techniques. 

“These barriers require a practical, collective approach to overcome them, as individual organizations cannot solve them,” says Van Der Horst-Graat.

Foodvalley's ambition is that 50% of the food and beverage products offered, at any point of sale, contributes to health.Ecosystem analysis  
To identify these roadblocks, Foodvalley analyzed the food ecosystem, mapping all relevant stakeholders and assessing their roles within the food system. 

In the research, the team examined challenges and opportunities for companies to reduce salt, sugar and saturated fat and increase dietary fibers, according to guidelines such as the National Approach Product Improvement launched in 2022. This initiative from Dutch authorities encourages manufacturers to develop a healthier product offering for consumers. 

Van Der Horst-Graat explains: “We conducted an ecosystem analysis, which included questionnaires and around 100 interviews with businesses — including manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and retailers — and other stakeholders such as national and local government, NGOs, knowledge institutions, media, banks, investors and branch organizations.” 

Accessing R&D 
Van Der Horst-Graat explains that Foodvalley will support the partners in the Healthier Food Community to prioritize which roadblocks urgently need tackling to “create success stories — such as new products, partnerships or services — that can inspire organizations to work on initiatives that address other obstacles.” 

She adds that feedback from potential partners and participants in the pre-community event has been positive, since most organizations want to change the food system. However, organizations also shared their frustrations as certain obstacles may be challenging and time-consuming to overcome, such as accessing R&D. 

“R&D, for example, is crucial for a healthy product lineup, but not all stakeholders have access to the right equipment and facilities,” Van Der Horst-Graat highlights. “Therefore, collaborating on R&D capabilities can help companies create healthier food options.” 

“At Foodvalley, we have a shared facilities program, which includes over 350 facilities. That can help to foster R&D capabilities by exchanging knowledge and sharing these facilities.” 

Foodvalley highlights the importance of collaborating on R&D, since not all stakeholders can access qualified equipment.Roadblocks explained 
In addition to R&D access, Foodvalley has identified difficulties in changing consumer behaviors. While consumer awareness of sustainability and health grows, taste and low prices remain decisive purchasing factors – which can lead to unhealthy food purchasing patterns. 

For food innovators, it is challenging to get a new healthy product onto shelves and keep it there. Sales volume strongly influences a product’s listing, pricing and presentation in points of sale and promotion materials. 

Meanwhile, Foodvalley found that recommended guidelines and regulations on healthier food products are abundant, fragmented and sometimes contradictory. There is a lack of clarity on what can be considered “healthy” or “healthier,” nor is there a level playing field. As a result, first movers can feel it is risky to adjust their products and assortments. 

While SMEs play a crucial role in pioneering healthier food innovations, they sometimes need more business skills to successfully pitch, scale and market their product, ingredients or services. Moreover, SMEs with innovative products risk losing their unique business proposition to competitors if intellectual property rights insufficiently protect this. 

Finally, while new technologies and reformulation techniques abound to boost a product’s health credentials, implementing these too quickly may cost manufacturers sales as consumers need time to adjust to the new products. The need to ensure food safety, shelf life and stability according to legislative requirements may also lead producers to stick to tried and tested production methods, rather than innovating for health, 

Building on success factors 
Foodvalley discussed the roadblocks to a healthier food offer and the success factors to overcome them with 24 organizations, including food producers, knowledge institutes, financial institutions and data providers during the pre-community meeting in November. 

“The organizations validated the obstacles and were eager to start initiatives that build on their successes in solving some of these challenges,” says Van Der Horst-Graat. “We asked them to share the key factors for success in these examples and discussed how to implement concrete initiatives using those success factors.” 

The Healthier Food Community will launch on February 1, 2024, to foster practical initiatives that address identified challenges.“On December 14, we will continue these discussions in another event, further elaborating on these success factors and how to use them to solve all ecosystem challenges. The first community meeting for the Healthier Food Community will be on February 1.” 

Healthier Food Community 
Van Der Horst-Graat explains that Foodvalley’s communities are breeding grounds for organizations to build initiatives. At community meetings and master classes, partners meet like-minded people, build partnerships and share knowledge. 

She adds that partners in the community will cover the entire spectrum needed to create a healthier food offer, including food producers and ingredient suppliers, but also partners from adjacent sectors, such as NGOs, governmental bodies, dietitians, financial institutions and investors. 

“To make changes, we need to unlock silos,” she stresses, “because if you want a different result, you need to do things differently.” 

The first partners have already signed up to the Healthier Food Community. Foodvalley aims to include 100 organizations in the future and is still welcoming new partners to join. Van Der Horst-Graat adds: “Together, we will create successful examples in product reformulation or products with disruptive innovations.” 

Foodvalley has received an €800,000 (US$901,000) project grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport for this community, which will run for at least five years. 

By Jolanda van Hal