Healthier F&B: Foodvalley expands reformulation playbook with new protein guidance

Foodvalley has published an updated practical guide to support F&B manufacturers in reformulating more nutritious products. The guide comes amid mounting pressure on companies to deliver healthier and more sustainable products without taste and price compromises.

The expanded handbook goes beyond salt, sugar, and saturated fat reduction to offer manufacturers practical guidance on fiber improvement, novel proteins, upcycled ingredients, and real-world reformulation case studies.

Foodvalley, which is based in Wageningen, Netherlands, also explores how these changes impact product taste, texture, mouthfeel, shelf life, processing, and consumer acceptance. The guide is aligned with the Dutch National Approach to Product Improvement (NAPV). Foodvalley says it is also relevant in international contexts for improving food’s nutritional value.

The guide draws on official publications, scientific research, and field experts, including ingredient suppliers and R&D consultants. It is developed by Foodvalley’s The Healthier Food Community, The Protein Community, The Upcycling Community, and The Regenerative Agriculture Community.

Food Ingredients First unpacks what the 2026 update means in practice with Marleen de Jonge, project coordinator of Healthier Food at Foodvalley. She discusses how the guide’s new version can help F&B companies navigate the technical and commercial realities of reformulating F&B products for better nutrition.

Reformulating foods for less sugar, fats, and salt can help companies meet consumer demand for healthier options as research and regulatory action around processed foods — often associated with health risks — grows.

However, Foodvalley recognizes that processed products remain a “significant part of people’s diets today,” de Jonge says. Therefore, improving those products can still make a meaningful contribution to public health and more sustainable consumption.

“The case studies allow companies to learn from real-world experiences across the sector, while the guide strengthens practical support to help navigate reformulation decisions that improve both nutritional value and environmental impact.”

Marleen de Jonge: Protein reformulation is a lever for system-wide change, not just a way to maximize protein.

Protein as a health and sustainability lever

Foodvalley’s 2026 reformulation guide offers a significant update to its 2025 guide with the addition of a dedicated protein chapter. This is significant at a time when nearly 60% of global F&B consumers report actively incorporating more protein into their diets, according to Innova Market Insights.

The renewed guide underscores that “the future of protein is not exclusively plant-based” and balanced products combining plant and animal proteins are increasingly adopted to preserve taste, texture, and familiarity.

“Protein was chosen because it sits at the intersection of public health and sustainability. Shifting toward more plant-based or novel protein sources can help improve diet quality by reducing saturated fat intake and increasing fiber, while also lowering environmental impact,” de Jonge tells us.

“At the same time, the guide makes clear that protein should not be treated only as a nutrient to add or maximize, especially because average protein intake in Europe is already relatively high.” Studies on Western dietary patterns show that the mean protein intake often reaches 150–200% of the Population Reference Intake.

She urges companies to use protein reformulation as a “lever for system-wide change” — toward products that are nutritionally better, more sustainable, and aligned with the broader protein transition.

Thinking beyond Nutri-Scores

The guide points to the NAPV’s limit values on mono- and disaccharide sugars in bread (replacements) and breakfast cereals, dairy and plant-based alternatives, pastry and confectionery, and drinks. The lower sugar limit used by Nutri-Score is ≤4.5 g sugar (excluding drinks) per 100 g of product.

According to de Jonge, these frameworks are created with the goal to improve public health, and thereby drive reformulation in a positive direction.

“They give companies concrete targets and can help create internal momentum for reducing salt, sugar, and saturated fat or improving fiber content. The next step is ensuring that this goes beyond compliance, with companies focusing on meaningful improvements to overall nutritional quality rather than optimizing for individual metrics.”

“A better score should not become the only objective — the broader goal remains public health.”

The guide highlights that 15–25% salt can sometimes be removed without fully re-engineering flavor (depending on product category), but consumer acceptance and safety need careful management.

Reformulation for healthier F&B

Foodvalley’s guide highlights the challenges and benefits of reformulating with fats, salt, sugar, fiber, and proteins. In the EU, recent reports have revealed that the average sugar content of breakfast cereals was cut by 18% and fiber content increased by an average of 21% from 2015 to 2025.

However, manufacturers face technical bottlenecks, such as higher water activity, microbial growth, and a “chewy, hard, or grainy texture,” in low-sugar formulations. The guide suggests a focus on gradual sugar reduction, natural and artificial sweeteners, fermentation, and novel sweeteners to overcome these hurdles.

When working with fiber, the guide draws attention to grittiness, off-tones, dryness, water activity, and shelf life challenges. Manufacturers can use whole grains, green banana flour, fruits, vegetables, psyllium husk, pectin, cellulose, inulin, and beta-glucans in reformulated products.

For salt reduction reformulation, the guide mentions that manufacturers can “take out 15–25% salt without further re-engineering the flavor profile,” depending on the food product category. But they need to consider factors like microbial growth, preservation, and taste, and “reduction steps should be spread over 2–3 years to ensure consumer acceptability.”

Saturated fat reduction may affect aeration, spreadability, stability, mouthfeel, and sensory appeal. The guide highlights solutions like lipid-based (mono- and diglycerides) and plant-based replacers (avocado oils) as well as fermentation techniques to convert saturated fatty acids into unsaturated fats.

For reformulating with proteins, de Jonge points to the importance of using whole or minimally processed ingredients. For instance, beans, peas, faba beans, jackfruit, or mycoprotein can be used rather than relying only on isolates or highly refined ingredients.

“These ingredients can also improve overall nutrition, for example, by increasing fiber content, adding micronutrients, or reducing saturated fat.”

“A plant-based product is, however, not automatically healthier; the goal should be to use plant-based or novel proteins in a way that meaningfully improves health by adding real nutritional value.”

Why cutting sugar, salt and fat is not so simple

De Jonge flags cost as a common limiting factor for manufacturers reformulating for healthier F&B products.

“Healthier or more sustainable ingredients still have to compete with cheap, widely available, and technically well-performing bulk ingredients such as sugar, salt, and saturated fat,” she says.

“The guide shows why this is difficult — these ingredients do much more than provide flavor, as they also influence preservation, texture, mouthfeel, structure, browning, and shelf life. So when companies reduce them, they often have to solve several technical challenges at once, while also keeping the product affordable and acceptable to consumers.”

A report by the Health Council of the Netherlands shows that shifts toward more plant‑based proteins can substantially reduce climate pressures while still supporting healthy diets.

F&B reformulation: Theory to practice

The guide describes various reformulation case studies to “spark ideas, inform discussions, and support decision making when working on healthier and more future-proof products.”

For instance, it provides a fiber and sugar reduction case where a gummy was formulated for 77.8% less sugar and 7 g of fiber. The example highlights that fiber can be an effective sugar replacer, but it “cannot fully replace sweetness on its own,” the guide states.

Another case focused on salt reduction in meat alternatives. Salt was cut by 25%, and citrus and apple fiber improved texture and increased juiciness by 11% to amplify the perceived saltiness.

Cookies with 50% less sugar, replacing eggs with yeast protein in sauces and bakery applications, and plant-based cream cheese with up to 88% less saturated fat are some of the other examples the guide cites.

System change beyond product reformulation

Foodvalley calls its reformulation handbook a practical tool for the F&B industry — not a complete rulebook. Its guidance on salt, sugar, saturated fat, fiber, and protein are “a starting point for identifying possible solutions” but “do not represent an exhaustive list,” the guide mentions.

Additional considerations may apply, depending on the specific product context and formulation goals.

De Jonge points to the need for actions beyond reformulation — “broader system changes are needed to make healthier and more sustainable ingredients accessible, scalable, and commercially viable.”