News

For 2024-2025 Cosun Nutrition Center has a budget available of € 80.000,- for several research projects. Matching from, for example, Dutch Research Council (NWO) or other public/private funding sources is preferred.

Fabian Griens works as a Technical Support Specialist at Cosun Beet Company. He is working on the development and promotion of an innovative, functional ingredient that makes it possible to make tasty plant-based meat substitutes that fit into a more sustainable and healthier diet.

More and more people are taking animal welfare and environmental impact into consideration when choosing what to eat. Eating less meat contributes to this in a positive way. The range of meat substitutes in the supermarket has grown considerably in recent years. Of course, taste is also very important in our daily diet, not to mention health.

To respond to the protein transition and the growing demand for plant-based protein, more and more plant-based proteins are becoming available. A recent example is the protein isolate from fava beans, which is a good alternative to dairy protein.

The protein transition, the transition to a diet with more plant-based protein, is an increasingly important topic. By now it is clear that eating more plant-based and less animal-based food is important for our health and the environment. But is the quality of plant-based protein sources sufficient to meet human protein needs? Recently, prof.dr. Luc van Loon and his team investigated the effect of potato protein, compared to milk protein, on muscle synthesis at rest and during recovery after exercise. Potato protein is not the egg of Columbus, but the results are surprising.

People in the Netherlands tend to eat more plant-based products, such as unsalted nuts, seeds, legumes, vegetables and fruit, and less sugar-containing beverages and red and processed meat. The percentage of protein from plant sources increased slightly. The vast majority of people in the Netherlands, however, still do not adhere to the dietary guidelines of the Health Council of the Netherlands. The extent to which Dutch adults follow the guidelines varies from 10-50% between product groups. This is the finding of new food figures from RIVM's Dutch National Food Consumption Survey (FCS) 2019-2021. Results on energy and nutrients will be published later in 2023.

For 2023-2024 Cosun Nutrition Center has a budget available of € 120.000,- for several research projects. For each project there will be a maximum budget of € 40.000,-. Matching from, for example, Dutch Research Council (NWO) or other public/private financial sources is preferred.

Engaging in dialogue. That is what Director Janine Verheesen and Andries Olie, Senior Manager Nutrition, Health and Sustainability at the Cosun Nutrition Center, are looking forward to most. “We plan to do this with our colleagues within Cosun, with health professionals, scientists and organisations specialising in nutrition, health and sustainability, the media and other stakeholders.”

On 20 July 2022, the Cosun Nutrition Center will officially open as a nutritional science knowledge center for plant-based food products from the Royal Cosun cooperative agri-food organisation. The Cosun Nutrition Center is dedicated to all plant-based products and ingredients within Cosun, with a focus on food, health and sustainability.