Columns

About guys, quakes and cracks

I was at a friend’s party. The room was full. The conversation was about our construction and renovation issues. A woman, who lives in an old house, was worried. She spoke about cracks in the facade that had been there f..

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MEAT INDUSTRY

Listeria, blessing or curse?

10 June 2019

Listeria monocytogenes; no matter how small the bacterium is, it can be food producers’ worst nightmare. Because Listeria is all around us and not easy to control. The chilled fresh section in the supermarket is onl...

Cooling/freezing and CO2 reduction

10 June 2019

You get the highest return on your cooling installation at night. What do we do with solar panels on the roof of a cold store? Use them to freeze during the day! If the cold store is 25 m high, you only get about a quart...

Necessary evil

10 June 2019

Biodiversity on earth has fallen drastically in recent years. In the Netherlands and elsewhere, at least 613 animal species have disappeared since 1900. The main cause: HUMANS. Forest clearing, road construction, trade i...

Ambassadors

10 June 2019

Many decisions, except for the price, are made based on a gut feeling. If you have faith in something which is confirmed by a relation with a positive experience, that is often the final push someone needs to say yes. Ev...

Joining forces

07 May 2019

Every year, on King’s Day, the Netherlands is once again confronted with the facts (and with hamburgers and skewers contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria): hygiene is terrible at street markets. The Dutch Food and Co...

For your own safety

07 May 2019

One of the goals of our laws and regulations is to protect us from that which threatens us. The Dutch law, for instance, stipulates that if you ride a moped or motorcycle, you must wear an approved helmet. Many internati...

Food safety

07 May 2019

Once - when I was young and wild - I travelled through Africa, through areas I would never go to today. Lots of people died in the Sahel drought, hunger terrorised the area. But what I remember most is the lack of toilet...

Back to the origin

07 May 2019

In a not so distant past, food products were local and seasonal, and therefore not available year round. There was no refrigerator, only a basement. Controlling the temperature was a lot harder at the time. Vegetables an...

Pink Chevrolet

07 May 2019

‘What brand and colour of car cause the most accidents?’ An investigation has been conducted among insurers. As if it depends on the car instead of the driver... The discussion fires up on the radio. ‘What could be the n...

Food Processing

09 April 2019

It is the same song every single day. After a hard day's work 'to put food on the table', there literally must be food on the table. The trend in the Netherlands is 'pure, fair, and artisanal'. At the same time, the curr...

No compromise

09 April 2019

I have been to India several times last year. I also visited production companies, such as a factory where they make a traditional sweet called 'Ladoo'. A dough is made of (chickpea) flour, often different kinds of nuts,...

Doggybag

09 April 2019

For whom do we 'process' food? In the old days, consumers cooked their meals, then they started to assemble and, today, they often go for ready meals. All in all, we scrape together up to 42 eating moments per week. ...

Looking into the future

09 April 2019

I have a sad and maybe even shocking announcement to make: the Slagersvakschool, the butchery school, no longer exists! There was no other option. We could not continue any longer. 'Seriously!? But since when? And why di...

Time management

08 April 2019

Do you recognise this? Your desk has turned yellow and pink with all the post-its because everything is high-priority and should have been done yesterday. This one phone call, the client you wanted to visit but who you c...

20% less packaging

05 March 2019

Consumers, supermarkets, social organisations and governments are putting more and more pressure on companies to pack(age) in a sustainable way. Dutch supermarkets recently agreed that by 2025 there will be a 20 percent ...