New white paper on health: Leading the way towards healthy food solutions
With a global reality where 800 million people are undernourished and more than 2.2 billion people are obese at the same time, innovation of healthy foods and solutions is a key to meeting the challenges. The new white paper on Health describes Denmark’s approach to continuously innovating and developing the market for healthier food products.
As humans, our way of life is deeply rooted in the food that we consume. However, the health of the global population has evolved into one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century with an increasing number of people affected by lifestyle diseases and over 2 billion people not having regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food.
“Ensuring accessible healthy food is crucial for sustainable development which is why, innovation of healthy food and solutions is key to meeting the global challenges. Here, the Danish strengths within healthy food innovation can evolve as part of the solution”, says Lise Walbom, CEO in Food Nation.
Collaboration is a key in developing healthier food products and solutions
When innovating new food products and solutions, knowledge and research is of utmost importance. Without an evidence-based foundation of knowledge, creating the solutions to tomorrow’s problems is exceedingly difficult. In Denmark, we have a unique advantage when it comes to food innovation and research. Because of the country’s long history of working cooperatively throughout the whole value chain, Denmark has for many years been at the forefront of innovative research and development. This position is no coincidence, however, but a result of the unique collaborative mindset between multiple stakeholders in the Danish food production.
“Together with the industry, health NGO’s, the government and academia we speak with a single voice and move forward in the same direction, working towards the same agenda of creating healthier food products for Danes and for our export markets”, says Lise Walbom.
The collaborative, sector-wide approach on public health issues has helped Denmark continually stay ahead of the curve, often being the first to set standards later implemented at EU-level.
Transforming challenges to sustainable market opportunities
Diets around the world must not only become healthier, they also must become more sustainable and accessible. That is why the Danish food sector is taking part in projects working to develop healthier products, informative guidelines or establishing partnerships, making both the healthy and sustainable choice more accessible for consumers.
Cross sectoral collaboration and partnerships are thus some of the driving forces behind the Danish food sector’s success with healthy and sustainable food products and the foundation for new food solutions to the global challenges.