Interviews

'The drive for improvement is there'

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) oversees - among other things - the production of safe food. Recent outbreaks and major changes in detection techniques are prompting more attention to machine ..

Vragenuurtje BBB: een aanrader

18 October 2022

Caroline van de Plas, Henk Vermeer en Femke Wiersma beantwoorden in een online webinar 140 vragen over het rapport Remkes en de reactie van het kabinet. Een interessant uurtje vraag & antwoord. Duidelijk, helder en z...

Smart Industry: “Innovate or drown"

17 October 2022

Digitalisation, automation and robotisation are bitterly necessary to keep your head above water as a food manufacturer. However, technical innovation cannot happen without the power of the people in your company. That a...

Laurens Hoedemaker: 'I am averse to fussing about power'

22 September 2022

At the beginning of last year, Laurens Hoedemaker (51) took office as the new chairman of the Central Organisation for the Meat Sector (COV) and the Dutch Meat Industry Association (VNV). Before that, he was director of ...

Jan-Willem Grievink: 'The supermarket is facing a revolution'

12 July 2022

Jan-Willem Grievink, founder and former director of Food Service Institute Netherlands (FSIN), spoke at the ‘Retail meets Foodindustrie’ event on 16 June about the changing retail landscape and the many opportunities it ...

WFSR: 'We are getting better at preventing food crises'

16 May 2022

In the event of a major fire, radiation incident or food scandal, the government wants to know quickly whether the food and drinking water are still safe. Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) provides the government wi...

Hanneke Faber: 'Without robotics, we can't feed the world'

11 April 2022

Unilever's Foods Innovation Centre in Wageningen 'Hive', opened its doors at the end of 2019. As Hive strives for openness and transparency, the idea was to host many stakeholders and interested parties from the start, b...

Timo Hoogeboom – CEO HAK: 'B Corp attracts the right people'

07 March 2022

Post-war Holland (from 1952) grew up with the canned vegetables in glass of the former family business from Giessen: HAK. The Christian values of the time, "living from dependence", are still deeply rooted in the company...

Edwin Bark: "The sweetspot lies with diehard carnivores"

07 February 2022

It has been done: making vegetable meat with the structure of a bavette, including blood, fat and muscle tissue. If you want to taste the vegan steak from the Israeli start-up Redefine Meat, you still have to go to a top...

Interview with Hugo Verkuil of The Vegetarian Butcher

15 November 2021

Unilever has a golden opportunity with The Vegetarian Butcher (De Vegetarische Slager). The FMCG group acquired the brand from founder Jaap Korteweg in late 2018 and has since been working on a powerful rollout worldwide...

Sina Salim: 'How to find your way to the market'

11 October 2021

Sina Salim is one of the six innovation brokers at the Regional Centre for Technology (RCT) Foundation in Gelderland. As regional manager for the FoodValley and Noord-Veluwe region, he helps food companies and other entr...

The Netherlands: pioneer in the protein transition

13 September 2021

Halving animal consumption by 2040, that is the ambition of ProVeg Nederland in cooperation with LIVEKINDLY Collective, which has seven brands of meat substitutes and a global media platform. Veerle Vrindts of ProVeg Ned...

Maurits Steverink - interview

10 May 2021

"We want to create added value and market more sustainable food products," says Maurits Steverink, project manager of the Smaakacademie (Taste Academy) Achterhoek. "Make everyone in the food chain co-producers. Modernise...

Marc Laus: 'We can't sit back and relax'

12 April 2021

The potato. Known as a starch product, basic ingredient for Dutch stews, raw material for chips and crisps, source of inspiration for a world-famous painting by Vincent van Gogh. But the potato is much more than that. Ma...

'Alternatives to plastic aren't always more sustainable'

08 March 2021

Sustainability is undoubtedly the biggest issue when it comes to the future of packaging. Consumer perception, the marketing department and the lack of knowledge sometimes get in the way of truly sustainable packaging. W...

Brave New Food: "We want to connect, accelerate, innovate"

08 February 2021

The transition to more sustainable and healthier food, to minimize climate change and pressure on healthcare, must accelerate. That's what the founders of the new platform Brave New Food believe. They want to boost that ...