The Netherlands Nutrition Centre encourages consumers to develop and maintain healthy and more sustainable eating habits and the food industry to produce a more sustainable range of food products. Essentially, we work to make ‘the healthy choice the easy choice’. Partnering with local professionals and various other relevant parties, we serve as the link that brings them together. We further provide effective tools to assist and support dieticians and staff at Area Health Authorities and infant welfare centres.
The activities of the Netherlands Nutrition Centre are divided into three programmes:
Our Healthy and Conscious Eating Habits programme allows scientific knowledge about food and nutrition to be tailored to individual consumers’ information demands. The programme consists of various themes.
Wheel of Five
Central component is the Wheel of Five. Read more about the Wheel of Five in our English flyer .
More plant-based
A shift towards a more plant-based and less animal-based diet is not only better for our health, it is also more sustainable. Read more in the White paper - Towards a more plant-based diet (pdf).
Healthy school canteen
A healthy school canteen facilitates making healthy choices. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre’s Healthy School Canteen Guidelines helps.
Other themes
Additionally we develop communication campaigns about Nutrition & Disease as well as Food Safety. Through the Supply & Distribution theme we advise the food industry about issues such as product improvement.
The programme’s principal goals are:
- To publish information on this internet site;
- To distribute a broad range of practical information material via our webshop and other sources;
- To publish digital newsletters;
- To maintain a food databank.
The Stay healthy all your life programme was developed to enable present and future generations to adopt healthy eating habits and achieve a good energy balance. The programme provides information explaining what healthy eating habits are and how to develop these, and how the energy balance works. We also take account of the needs and life phases of specific target groups. Instruments are provided to help users apply the available information in practice, geared to their individual needs and with due regard for the impact and role of the social and physical environment. Activities in this programme include:
- Providing support to local professionals who are involved in providing care to young children, with a view to preventing obesity and developing healthy eating habits;
- Empowering parents to make healthy choices in eating habits, thereby preventing their children from developing obesity;
- Encouraging healthy eating habits among children and young people (aged from 4-18).
The primary goal of the Sustainable Food programme is to inform consumers about sustainable food. The information we provide will enable consumers to choose more sustainable eating habits. Additionally, we provide information about sustainable food to professional education institutions in order to generate awareness, amongst the professional workforce of the future, of healthy and sustainable food consumption. Within this programme, we devote special attention to young people as a target group. Examples of activities include:
- Educational activities developed specially for young people;
- Bachelor’s Award for (trainee) food managers;
- A ‘Food-is-there-to-be-eaten’ platform to reduce food waste.