NUTRITION INFORMATION USAGE AND FUTURE FOOD · van Buul, V. J., & Brouns, F. J. P. H. (2015).Nutrition and health claims as marketing tools. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition

Vincent van Buul, Ph.D.Brightlands Agrifood Ventures

NUTRITION INFORMATION USAGE AND FUTURE FOOD

2© 2018 Chemelot Ventures Management

Background & welcome

Ph.D. research: Nutrition information usage in food choices

Brightland Agrifood Ventures

Considerations on nutrition and health claims on future food

Discussion

Overview


Interdisciplinary researcher in food & health

B.Sc. (2010) in Life Sciences

M.Sc. (2012) in Health Food Innovation Mgmt.

Ph.D. (2018) in Food Psychology

Former R&D Manager of multinational tortilla-producer (2014 – 2018)

Currently Investment Analyst for Brightlands Agrifood Ventures

And, most of all, a foodie who wants to shape our future food

Background & welcome


Research interest

What we eat

How much we eat

Health

• Products• Brands

• Nutrients• …

• Portion size• Energy density

• Frequency• …

• Obesitas• Diabetes

• Mental health• …


Research on how nutrition information usage affects healthy food choices

Nutrition information comes through many sources

Consumer definition of healthy food is not always in line with scientific definition

Food choices are hard to predict

Ph.D. research


1. How do European consumers perceive nutrition and health claims about specific food

ingredients and how to improve the attention to and comprehension of such claims?

2. Why are recommendations to reduce fructose-consumption disputable and impractical

given the current scientific findings on the relation between fructose and obesity?

3. What are the determinants of inadvertent (un)healthy substitutive food choices from

consumers who have the intention to eat healthily?

4. What are differences between groups of consumers who intend to eat healthily, segmented

on the time and frequency of energy, salt, sugar, and saturated fat information usage?

Ph.D. research – Research questions


Nutrition and health claims as marketing tools

van Buul, V. J., & Brouns, F. J. P. H. (2015). Nutrition and health claims as marketing tools. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 55(11), 1552-1560.



Regulation (EC) 1924/2006

What it contains What it does

Type of

claim: NCs HCs

Name: Content claimsComparative

claimsFunction claims

Reduction of disease risk

claims

Parameter:Based on generally accepted

scientific evidence

Based on newly developed

scientific data

(includes claims on growth

and development of

children)

Reference: Art. 8 Art 9 Art. 13(1) Art 13(5) Art. 14

Example:“Source of

vitamin C”

“High in vitamin

C”

“Vitamin C increases iron

absorption”

“Water soluble tomato

concentrate helps maintain

normal platelet aggregation”

“Vitamin D may reduce the

risk of falling. Falling is a

risk factor for bone

fractures




Product

Product category

Brand

Functional ingredient

Benefit claimed

Taste/sensory attributes

Claim format

o Ingredient, function

benefit

Claim wording

o Positive/negative

o May/can

o Vague/precise

Final Consumer

Understanding of the claim Attitude to the claim

Attitude to

the product

Purchase intent

Purchase behavior

Target group

Beliefs

Relevance

Familiarity

Nutrition knowledge

modified from Wills, et al. (2012)




Need the product Understand the benefit

Who

When

Why

Physical

Intellectual

Emotional

Accept the ingredient(s) Trust the brand

Awareness level

Interest level

Trendspotting

History

Promise

Image


Misconceptions about fructose-containing

sugars and their role in the obesity epidemic

van Buul, V. J., Tappy, L., & Brouns, F. J. P. H. (2014). Misconceptions about fructose-containing sugars and their role in the obesity epidemic. Nutrition Research Reviews. 27(1), 119-130.


1. 1 g sugar in strawberries = 1 g sugar in soda. Still, strawberries are healthier..

2. Production and/or sales data within one country are not equal to consumption data

3. Excessive consumption of pure fructose, at levels in food that are not relevant for human nutrition

(> 10%), cause harmful metabolic effects in animals and humans

4. In combination with glucose, these effects are mitigated at concentrations


In July 2016, 240 Dutch participants

completed a questionnaire

Their average age was ~ 52 years

Our target was to study food choice behavior

and to link it to their psychosocial

characteristics

Empirical research in Dutch consumers

van Buul, V. J., Bolman, C. A. W., Brouns, F. J. P. H., & Lechner, L. (2017). Back-of-pack information in substitutive food choices: A process-tracking study in participants intending to eat healthy. Appetite. 116, 173-183.



Table 2: Descriptive statistics of the amount and time of nutritional information considered, taste preferences, and 1

percentage of healthy food choices 2

Mean ± SD Range

(min – max)

Cronbach’s

alpha

Number of information-cells opened per choice (9

choices)

21.02 ± 8.50 2.00 – 56.22 0.883

Time used to view information-cells per choice (in

seconds; 9 choices)

18.72 ± 9.38 1.00 – 46.01 0.871

Percentage of healthy food choices (from max. 9 matrices) 82.16 ± 17.42 25.00 – 100.00 -

3




Table 3: Associative factors of the percentage of healthy choices made (N = 240) 1

Variables β t p R2

Model 3 0.229

Gender 0.030 0.472 0.638

BMI -0.024 -0.393 0.694

Age -0.026 -0.419 0.676

Intention to eat healthy 0.205 2.287 0.023*

Self-efficacy -0.216 -2.535 0.012*

Action planning -0.005 -0.047 0.962

Coping planning 0.054 0.522 0.602

Taste preference 0.361 6.037


Participants were subdivided into 3 groups:

High information users

Medium information users

Low information users

Low information users made significantly less healthy choices

Within this group, there was some evidence that too much self-efficacy

can have a negative effect

Cluster-analysis on usage of energy, salt, sugar,

and saturated fat-information



Nutrition and health claims can only be used as marketing instruments in certain cases

The definition of health for consumers ≠ scientific definition of health

Even health-conscious consumers will make unhealthy choices

Although 82% healthy food choices seem high, we must remember that we make more than 200 food

choices every day

Nutrition literacy is an important determinant in healthy food choice behavior

Process-tracing studies offer certain advantages over food frequency questionnaires

General conclusions Ph.D. research


Ecosystem investors

Chemicals & Materials

Regenerative medicine



Circular



Circular

AgriFood

Cell

therapy

Gene

therapy

Biomedical

Materials

Mechanical

recycling

Chemical

recycling

Thermal

recycling

BiobasedNutrition

Smart

agriculture

2004 2014 2017


Phase of investment

Pre-seed

~50k

Seed

~200k

First round

>1M€

Second round

>2M€

Angels / RVO / EU grants

VCs (non-regional)


Fund focus areas

AgriSeed & grow

FoodHarvest & formulate

Product innovations & enablers

• Crop protection products• Biological agriculture (BioAg) • Seed improvement

• Microbiome regulation• Alternative proteins• Animal nutrition (feed)• Animal breeding

Process innovations & enablers

• Urban/vertical farming• Smart agriculture/horticulture• Biomass processing• Seed treatment

• Extraction & food processing technologies

• Formulation technologies• Animal & aquaculture product

innovations


We invest in breakthrough innovations with a proof-of-concept

We believe that there is an increased chance of success by the “ecosystem”

We are actively involved on an ‘as needed’ basis.

We invest max € 3.5 mln per company; typical initial investment € 0.5 mln

Our return requirements: financial and ecosystem benefits

How we work


Three major future food challenges:

1. Growth in demand does not match increase in

agricultural productivity

2. Our current food system has an immense

impact on climate change

3. Malnutrition incidence (both under- and

overnutrition) needs to be reduced

A deep understanding of consumer behavior is

required to address these challenges

Considerations on NHCs on future food


We need new food products and processes to solve these future food challenges

Nutrition and health claims are a way to stimulate innovations

Nutrition literacy should be improved

Disruptive technology might enable quicker solutions

Food innovation is part of our history

Good food innovation requires:

The right people

Money and facilities

A great idea

Considerations on NHCs on future food

Vincent van Buul, Ph.D.Brightlands Agrifood Ventures

NUTRITION INFORMATION USAGE AND FUTURE FOOD

Documents

NUTRITION INFORMATION USAGE AND FUTURE FOOD · van Buul, V. J., & Brouns, F. J. P. H. (2015).Nutrition and health claims as marketing tools. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition