DSM publishes 2020 financial report, spotlights vitamin D fortification against nutrient deficiency
16 Feb 2021 --- DSM’s Nutrition segment saw an overall slightly positive sales impact from immunity, which has also spurred research into vitamin D.
The company has recently published its 2020 financial report, as well as a study on vitamin D fortification.
A simulation study conducted by the company’s scientists suggests that adequate vitamin D intake cannot be achieved within carbon emission limits unless food is fortified.
Even with a diet that is relatively abundant in vitamin D-rich foods, the study found it is not possible to achieve an adequate vitamin D intake without greatly increasing carbon emissions and calorie intake.
“Nutrition and health care professionals tend to disagree on whether vitamin D can be obtained from a balanced diet or not,” corresponding author Dr. Maaike Bruins, senior scientist of nutrition at DSM Nutritional Products, tells NutritionInsight.
“This study showed that recommended vitamin D intakes can simply not be met from the diet alone.”
Meanwhile, DSM’s 2020 financial report highlights “solid full-year results” in a “challenging” COVID-19 environment.
Compared to DSM’s 2019 full-year results, Nutrition sales went up by 6 percent, as well as organic sales (6 percent). Adjusted EBITDA saw 7 percent growth.
“In 2020, dietary supplements and pharma were very strong in particular, as COVID-19 drove strong consumer demand for immunity-optimizing products,” a DSM spokesperson tells NutritionInsight.
At the cost of carbon increases
In the Nutrients-published study, a Dutch model diet was designed to meet the adequate vitamin D intake.
However, that was only achieved when the calorie intake increased two-fold and the carbon footprint increased almost three-fold.
By fortifying bread, milk and oil in the diet with vitamin D, accompanied by shifts in energy consumption toward fish and more plant-based nutrient-dense food sources, the study achieved an adequate vitamin D intake.
There were “minor compromises” on the carbon emission and popularity of the diet within 2,000 kcal limits, says the study.
“The improvement in vitamin D adequacy (from 21 percent to 100 percent) and average nutrient adequacy (from 86 percent to 100 percent) was larger than the 8 percent increase in the carbon footprint,” the study authors detail.
The study also provided recommendations to optimize the intake of all nutrients, for example increasing fish consumption as it provides the omega 3 DHA and EPA that people are generally short of.
In a follow-up study, Bruins and her research team plan to model how more sustainable omega 3s can fit into a carbon-neutral healthy diet that can meet all nutrient requirements.
“We also showed that a diet with carbon footprint-saving is possible, meeting vitamin D and all nutrient recommendations. However, this requires people to compromise on popular but poor-nutrient-dense food products.”
Debating fortification versus supplements
Bruins notes that food fortification is especially appealing as vitamin D supplementation requires a certain level of consumer awareness and daily dietary habits.
Also, vitamin D supplements should preferably be accompanied by recommendations from health or national authorities. Therefore, Bruins reveals large-scale fortification offers an excellent opportunity to ensure adequate dietary vitamin D intake.
“Finland shows that large-scale voluntary vitamin D fortification of dairy and fat-based spreads since 2003 is well accepted and has helped the Finnish population to improve their vitamin D levels,” notes Bruins.
In Q4, business conditions in Human Nutrition remained strong, says DSM, primarily in dietary supplements.A bridge too far?
A previous interview with Dr. Adrian Martineau, head of the UK’s CoronaVit trial, revealed that vitamin D’s potential benefits to prevent COVID-19 are currently unproven. He deemed it “a bridge too far” to claim that fortification would impact the risk of the disease.
Moreover, Martineau pointed out that the timelines of fortification and addressing the pandemic do not align. “Fortification would take months or years to get off the ground, but COVID-19 requires urgent action,” he said at the time.
While Bruins agrees distributing dietary supplements is an immediate deficiency strategy, she points out it requires government recommendation and education.
“Fortification is a long-term and cost-effective approach to achieve population-broad vitamin D sufficiency levels with long-term impact,” Bruins explains.
Financial report details
For DSM’s financials, the company sees significant headroom for business growth and innovation in its Nutrition segment.
The company aims on expanding its “global products and local solutions model,” covering the food & beverages, specialty nutrition, animal feed and personal care end-markets.
“Developments in biosciences and the broad adoption of digital ways of life are opening new opportunities to add a third area of innovation-based growth to our business model in Precision & Personalization,” the DSM spokesperson explains.
This development also involves a “natural evolution” from delivering customized premixes to enabling the creation of personalized nutritional mixes, they detail.
Overall, DSM aims to deliver mid-single-digit percent organic sales growth, an above 20 percent Adjusted EBITDA margin, and high-single-digit percentage adjusted EBITDA growth on a mid-term basis in Nutrition, supported by its strong innovation pipeline.
Recent acquisitions such as CSK, Glycom and the Erber Group further strengthened DSM’s value proposition to customers.
By Anni Schleicher
