CONSCIOUS NUTRITION
Vandemoortele takes pride in offering tasty and high-quality food. Guaranteeing healthy, clean, and safe food products is very important to us. By improving the nutrition profile of our products and offering plant-based alternatives, we aim to contribute to consumers' health. We use simple ingredients and communicate clearly to enable people to make well-informed food choices. Every day, we invest in research and product development to raise the bar ever higher in terms of food quality and safety.
NELE BEIRINCKX
Group director R&D, Quality and Master Data
“The quality and taste of our products are our trademarks. We create food that tastes good and brightens up pleasant moments with family and friends. At the same time, providing clean and safe food products with a good nutritional balance is our priority.”
”My main mission is to lead the R&D, Quality and Master Data teams and encourage them to support our strategy. Together, we create strong innovations and implement high Quality and Food Safety standards, embedded in a strong data governance culture. This collaboration is the key to our success.”
IMPROVING THE NUTRITION PROFILE OF OUR PRODUCTS
As a market leader in the food industry, we recognise the importance of a healthy and nourishing diet. By improving the nutrition profile of our products, we aim to contribute to consumer health and to meet our customers’ expectations.
Not all of our products are equally healthy. Our indulgence products, like donuts or patisserie, are meant as treats, and should be added in small quantities to an otherwise healthy diet. We do not aim to turn these pleasure foods into healthy products, but we do make efforts to reduce their sugar and salt content. The search for a good balance between taste and health is a delicate quest, but we continue to improve the nutrition profile of our products wherever possible.
OFFERING PLANT-BASED ALTERNATIVES
With the world’s population having surpassed 7 billion, the staggering impact on our planet is evident. Switching towards a more plant-based diet is one of the best solutions to reduce our impact and continue to feed so many people.
By moving towards more plant-based ingredients and products, we aim at reducing our carbon footprint and our climate impact, in line with the European Green Deal. Our focus is on plant-based food alternatives, like offering margarine instead of butter. The production of margarine requires far less land, and its carbon footprint is more than 50% smaller. By offering more plant-based food products, we reinforce our positive impact on consumer health and animal welfare.
Read our position on plant-based and vegan.
FACILITATING WELL-INFORMED FOOD CHOICES
Food transparency is a growing trend: as a consumers you want to know what you are eating, where the ingredients come from, and what your choices mean for the planet. We meet this demand by communicating transparently about ingredients, additives, preservatives, allergens, etc. We use simple and recognisable ingredients and avoid many food additives. Every step is considered from various angles: for example, removing an additive should not lead to a shorter shelf life and more food waste.
We communicate clearly about the origin of our ingredients, our Clean Label definition, and our carbon footprint. By performing Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs), we aim to better understand the impact of our products. This allows you as consumer to make well-informed food choices.
BEING A LEADER IN FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY
The safety and quality of Vandemoortele’s products are very important to us. Aiming to be a leader in food safety and quality means protecting your health while cherishing and maintaining the excellent taste and characteristics of our products.
In recent years, food quality and safety requirements have become increasingly strict. Legislation is ever-changing, for example on cross-contamination or the use of pesticides. This pushes us to follow the legal requirements and even go beyond them.
