Producers of bread, pastry, cake, sweets, salty snacks
Vereniging voor de bakkerij- en zoetwaren-industrie (VBZ) (Netherlands Association for the baking and sweets industry) and the Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Bakkerij (NVB) (Netherlands Association for the Baking Industry)
A collaboration between the producers and customers of oils and fats. The objective of the Task Force is to reduce the quantity of saturated fat and trans fat in foodstuffs.
Information articles
Healthy innovations at the successful Health & Taste conference
VBZ in collaboration with Unimills organised the Health & Taste conference in the Netherlands Bakery Centre in Wageningen on 1 November, 2007. The theme “Discover the healthy side of tasty” was the central theme of the conference, with presentations, an information market and a display of healthy innovations from the sector.
After a presentation about the perception of the consumer relative to health given by GFK (Market Research company), the challenges in this respect facing the bakery and sweets industries were named by the Nutrition Centre and the Product Board MVO. The Nutrition Centre presented various points for attention concerning health and the Product Board MVO informed those present about the current situation of the fatty acid composition in the bakery sector and the Task Force for the Improvement of the Fatty acid composition.
As well as attention being paid to points requiring improvement there was a great deal of attention for the actual situation in the industry in relation to health. Various companies, such as Unimills, Campina and Symrise, presented their innovations for health. From the own sector Vast Bakeries spoke about its experiences with health innovation.
TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) presented the general results of the study “Healthy fatty acids in the bakery”. This study has been initiated by VBZ to investigate the possibilities for reducing the saturated fatty acid content in bakery products by 1/3. Albert Jurgens stated that the result depends on the type of product category. For instance, it has become apparent that it is easier to reduce the saturated fat content in shortbread and cake than for other product categories.
Finally, an implementation strategy to apply the results of this study in practice was introduced to the members of the VBZ. TNO will assist participating companies to arrive at practical and workable results for their specific recipes using the knowledge that has been gained during the study.
This phase of the study “Healthy fatty acids in the bakery” will be completed in January 2008. TNO will present the definite results to the members during the theme afternoon on 24 January, 2008. The implementation strategy will also be started on that afternoon.
