Voedingscentrum

About Voedingscentrum

The Voedingscentrum is the Netherlands Nutrition Centre: an independent, publicly funded foundation that translates scientific knowledge about healthy, sustainable, and safe eating into practical advice for people in the Netherlands. It serves consumers as well as professionals, offering guidance, tools, and materials that help people make better food choices in everyday life.

Its public mission is broader than individual health alone. The organization positions healthy eating as inseparable from a healthy planet, and it focuses on making good choices easier in real-world settings such as schools, sports canteens, hospitals, childcare, care homes, and other food environments. It also supports professionals with up-to-date information so they can pass on reliable advice in their own work.

Core Values

• Independence: The Voedingscentrum states that it works without commercial interests and does not accept money from companies. Its advice is based on scientific consensus rather than trends or marketing.
• Scientific reliability: Its guidance is grounded in research and is continuously updated as new evidence emerges. The organization emphasizes translating science into clear, usable advice.
• Health for people and planet: Healthy eating is presented as inseparable from sustainability, with attention to climate impact, food waste, and the balance between plant-based and animal-based foods.
• Accessibility and practicality: The organization aims to make healthy, safe, and sustainable choices understandable and achievable for everyone, regardless of age, background, or situation.

Unique Aspects

• Public, non-commercial mandate: The Voedingscentrum is financed through government subsidies and explicitly does not accept financial contributions from companies, which supports its independent positioning.
• Schijf van Vijf as a practical national framework: Its signature model combines health, sustainability, and safety in one everyday tool, making it a distinctive reference point in Dutch nutrition guidance.
• Work across food environments: Beyond consumer advice, it actively works with schools, sports canteens, hospitals, childcare, care homes, and other settings to improve the food offer and make healthier choices easier.
• PPS collaboration model: It participates in public-private partnerships under a code of conduct, including work with supermarkets to distribute materials and with Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling on consumer communication about reducing food waste.