Nutrition in healthcare brings opportunity for industry growth and innovation

The Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) International urges integrating nutrition science into healthcare policy, arguing it is crucial to promoting healthy diets while empowering professionals. 

This opens the door for policymakers to step up and set standards, incentives, and accountability mechanisms that align with preventive care and dietary strategies. It also presents an innovation opportunity for the nutrition industry to reformulate products into healthier alternatives.

Nutrition Insight sits down with PAN’s Dr. Roberta Alessandrini, director of Dietary Guidelines Initiative, and Federica Amiconi, EU public affairs officer. They tell us how companies should position themselves to gain a competitive advantage, the crucial need for reformulation, and the current obstacles to an international market.

Alessandrini explains how intertwining nutrition and healthcare might reshape demand for functional ingredients, fortified products, plant-based proteins, and medically tailored foods.

“In healthcare settings, we see the same pattern every day. People want to do the right thing, but the food environment often makes the healthy choice the hard choice. If nutrition is properly embedded into healthcare, that starts to change, because we address nutrition consistently and early, not only after health problems have already developed.”

She says that this would likely increase demand for nutrition products that genuinely support prevention and treatment.

“In healthcare, products need to complement healthy dietary patterns, not replace them. In practical terms, we would likely see growing demand for minimally processed plant foods, as healthcare professionals give more consistent advice to increase fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.”

Alessandrini further details alternative proteins with good nutritional quality. “For example, we might see increased demand for tofu, tempeh, and seitan, as well as plant-based mince, but also for products such as bean burgers or textured vegetable protein, with the focus shifting from ideology to evidence and overall nutritional quality. The latter products are often perceived as ultra-processed, but evidence shows they can support long-term health.”

In addition, she points to appropriately fortified products with clearer guidance on nutrients such as vitamin B12, iodine, iron, and vitamin D.

“If nutrition becomes part of healthcare, the opportunity is real, but so is the expectation. Products will need to earn clinical confidence through evidence, transparency, and alignment with dietary guideline principles, including planetary health.”

The nutrition industry can position itself constructively in this transition by aligning product development with public health goals, says Amiconi.Comes down to silos

As for current obstacles to aligning health policies, nutrition, and agriculture, Amiconi says it often comes down to silos.

“Health, agriculture, and economic and industrial policy have historically been developed separately, often led by different ministries and agencies with different goals, timelines, and success measures. As a result, policies can pull in different directions, and ‘policy coherence’ becomes difficult in practice.”

Progress usually requires making cross-sector collaboration the norm in policy-making. She explains: “That means clearer shared targets across government, better coordination between ministries, and an inclusive approach that brings public health, agriculture, industry, and civil society into the same conversation early, not only at the end.”

“The nutrition industry can position itself constructively in this transition by aligning product development with public health goals and where policy is heading.”

One practical route is reformulation, for example, meeting stricter thresholds for products high in salt, sugar, and saturated fat, while shifting toward nutrient-dense products and healthier defaults, Amiconi suggests.

“Industry can also support clear, comparable standards and transparent reporting, which helps build trust and makes progress easier to measure.”

Challenge seeking regulatory consistency

Incorporating nutrition into policy also presents the challenge of varying global regulations for multinational food and ingredient suppliers seeking regulatory and formulation consistency.

Alessandrini details that fragmented dietary guidelines across countries create real complexity for multinational food and ingredient suppliers.

“Different nutrient targets, labeling rules, and reformulation expectations can make it harder to standardize products and plan supply chains across markets. But fragmentation also highlights a bigger issue: the same brand often sells very different versions of the same product in different countries, especially when it comes to sugar, salt, and saturated fat.”

“Where nutrient standards and reformulation targets are stronger, products tend to be healthier. Where regulation is weaker, formulations are often less aligned with public health goals.”

Alessandrini stresses that fragmentation raises practical and ethical questions: “It is challenging to manage multiple standards, but it is also hard to justify why some populations should end up with products that are less healthy, simply because protections are less strict.”

Although greater alignment between countries would help, that is not a reason for the industry to wait for perfect global consistency before creating more nutrient-dense products, she says.

“Companies can set higher internal nutrition standards and apply them across markets wherever possible, so healthier product formulation is not limited to the countries that regulate it most strongly.”

Waiting for alignment between countries it is not a reason for the industry to hold back on innovating in nutrient-dense products, Alessandrini stresses.Politics and economics

In terms of how the nutrition industry can prepare for such a shift, Amiconi suggests economic tools such as subsidies, taxation, and pricing reforms can influence what people buy, as price is a main driver of food choice.

She explains that when used properly, these measures can help make healthier, lower-impact foods more affordable and accessible, making unhealthy options less attractive and supporting population health outcomes.

“In practice, the bigger challenge is usually political, not technical. Many governments favor gradual steps over larger, coordinated policy measures, which means change often comes in phases and can vary widely by country.”

“Industry can prepare by anticipating that policy will increasingly push in a healthier direction. That includes diversifying portfolios, investing in reformulation, and setting higher internal nutrition standards rather than waiting for minimum legal requirements to change.”

Amiconi concludes that companies that do this early are better placed to adapt as pricing measures evolve and to meet changing expectations from policymakers and consumers.