Manufacturers working towards a healthier and more-sustainable product portfolio are faced with two consumer-based challenges. Consumers claim that health and sustainability are important influencers of their choices. In practice, factors such as convenience, price and taste will always be the prime main criteria for the consumer purchase decision. In addition, the industry must face the fact that a large group of consumers are quite sceptical about the industry.

Nutritional impact on specific health aspects aims for greater understanding of the age-independent link between the composition and metabolic activity of microbiota, and biomarkers for various health conditions. These insights will support the development of food products with scientifically-substantiated effects.

The executive board of Wageningen University & Research has appointed Markus Stieger as Personal Professor in Food Oral Processing starting 01 February 2020. Since 2007 Markus is also project leader at TiFN.

Fungi’s heat-resistance makes them tough to control, making food processing and storage difficult. Unlike food-spoilage bacteria, they are relatively unexplored. TiFN’s Spores project (2016-2020), led by Professor Han Wösten, is researching heterogeneity between and within fungal strains.

Nutrition sciences have always taken a rather generic approach, investigating health effects in large groups of people. However, in order to move forward we should shift towards a more-personalised approach, stresses scientist Ellen Blaak from Maastricht University. 

Working in a non-competitive setting was new for BEL Group, when joining TiFN, in 2011. But they immediately saw the value in exchanging knowledge and ideas, and in developing projects from a shared vision, says Research Director Cécile Renault.