Food & Nutrition

The food industry is facing enormous challenges. Today’s large-scale food production negatively impacts our environment and raw material supplies are becoming exhausted. Population-associated pressures on our planet will increase substantially in the next decade, and the number of people with obesity, diabetes and food allergies is on the rise. As globalization speeds up, the risk of unmanageable food incidents increases correspondingly. These developments require innovation in healthy and sustainably-produced food products and a rigorous risk-management approach.

To accelerate innovation

TNO meets this demand through its multidisciplinary research programme. The organization develops methods and produces insights that help the agrifood sector to innovate quickly and that support governments in policy development. With its broad knowledge, experience and expertise, TNO has an important role to play in the translation of fundamental scientific insights into innovative, tailor-made applications. TNO is a partner in several public-private partnerships (PPPs) and open innovation networks in the Netherlands and the European Union.

Research Programme

This particular TNO research programme has three research areas. Food and Health develops methods for short-term assessment of the health effects of food products. The Food Safety area has three objectives. First, to develop methods that provide manufacturers and governments with quick, clear insights into the toxicological safety of complex food matrices. Second, to enable efficient assessments of allergenicity, and third, the early detection of emerging food risks. In the final area, Food innovations, TNO is developing a comprehensive approach that allows manufacturers to significantly shorten time-to-market for healthy and sustainable innovations. TNO focuses on issues of product formulas, production processes and product quality.