CONFERENCE CHEVREUL Nutrition research: the industrial approach

The goal of nutrition research in an industrial setting is the marketing of products. Since consumers cannot see from the product whether it is healthy, communication to the consumer about the nutritional and health values of the products is essential. Industrial nutrition research therefore has to provide the scientific dossier to underpin the claims and other communication on and around the product as well as the scientific basis for the communication. These two lines are illustrated in figure 1. For scientific audiences the steps to collect the scientific evidence are obvious: first screening for new ideas on the basis of scientific developments and business options, then identifying ingredients that can deliver the health benefit, followed by mechanistic and bioavailability studies and finally human intervention trials. The communication line is less obvious for most scientifically oriented audiences. Experience has shown that an information cascade has to be followed: during the execution of the research work close contact with academic experts (a true dialogue) is essential, when the research data are available information of a wide selection of health professionals (e.g. physicians, dieticians, science journalists) is taking place and only after this step communication to the consumer starts. The communication with the scientific experts (the first step of the cascade) obviously has to be in the hands of the nutrition research group of the industry involved. In Unilever this is the Unilever Nutrition Centre based in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands. Their role in the scientific dialogue is outlined in figure 2. The fact that the “Medaille Chevreul” has been awarded twice to members of the Unilever Nutrition Centre in the last two decades, illustrates that the UNC is considered to be a group with a truly scientific tradition.