FrieslandCampina raises Global Nutrition Standards goals to 70 percent of sales volume for 2020

19 Mar 2019 --- FrieslandCampina is raising its 2020 goals on its Global Nutritional Standards (GNS) compliance target to 70 percent. In 2018, 66 percent of the sales volume of FrieslandCampina consumer products complied with the company’s GNS. The FrieslandCampina GNS are nutritional criteria aimed at retaining the natural nutrients in milk and reducing the amounts of saturated fat, added sugar and salt as much as possible.

According to the company, these targets “serve as a guide for product development and reformulation, led by the successful implementation of the standards and continued progress,” of recent years.

Additionally, FrieslandCampina is aiming for a product portfolio with a good balance between “basic nutritional products for daily consumption” and “self-indulgent products for occasional consumption.” The objective is that yearly, at least 70 percent of the sales volume of consumer products come from “basic nutritional products for daily consumption.”

FrieslandCampina’s consumer products are intended to serve as “nourishing foods for daily use.” According to the company, these nourishing foods include quark, yogurt, milk and indulgent products, as well as desserts.

“Nowadays, consumers are more consciously opting for food that contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Not only in Europe, but also in Africa and Asia, people are becoming more conscious of foods they eat,” FrieslandCampina spokesperson Jan-Willem ter Avest tells NutritionInsight.

“Of course, there are regional differences and that is why we apply regional criteria to enrich products with vitamins and minerals in order to adjust to the needs of the local population.”

“Milk naturally contains important nutrients, such as protein and calcium, and as such forms part of a healthy nutritional diet,” he continues. “We are continuously improving the nutritional value of our products. Additionally, we ensure a good balance between the number of nourishing products intended for daily use and the number of indulgence products for occasional use.”

The product groups are categorized based on the product type (e.g., milk product, cheese, butter or meat substitute) and the place they take in the daily diet (basic food products for daily use, indulgence products or products for specific target groups). The percentage of products that meet these criteria is checked annually,” explains ter Avest.

Nutrition policies
An important part of FrieslandCampina’s “nourishing by nature” goal is providing better nutrition for the world population, says the company. This purpose is captured in the FrieslandCampina Nutrition Policy. This is based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan and is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, to reduce hunger in the world and to promote good health and well-being.

The company’s Nutrition Policy includes four programs: Better Products, Responsible Communications, Lifestyle Education and Broadening Access to Nutrition.

In the Better Products program, FrieslandCampina is seeking to improve the nutritional value of its products. The company says they “ensure a good balance between the number of nourishing products intended for daily use and the number of indulgence products for occasional use.”

To monitor this, FrieslandCampina has applied GNS, which serves as a guide in product development and reformulation. “We have formulated a number of practical objectives,” the company writes.

“Additionally, the program offers the possibility to set regional criteria for nutrients (FrieslandCampina Regional Standards) of which deficiencies occur or threaten to occur. For instance, regional criteria for enrichment with vitamins B12, A and D have been set in Asia, on the basis of the Southeast Asia Nutrition Survey (SEANUTS),” explains Avest.

Last week, FrieslandCampina announced that it is exploring options to build a sustainable dairy processing plant in the Netherlands. The plant is intended for the processing of milk into fresh dairy products, ingredients used for the production of early life and adult nutrition and cheese manufacturing. It would be built according to the latest insights in the area of technology and sustainability.

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