HAS University of Applied Sciences explores new food concepts for young people

The time is ripe for a new market approach, says Herman Peppelenbos, lecturer in Green Health at HAS University of Applied Sciences. After the corona crisis, caterers at large institutions could become an important customer for farmers and horticulturalists, provided they do it smartly. And it could ensure that the people who work or study at these institutions eat more healthily. Two recent research projects focused on food concepts for young people show interesting results in this area.

Helping the Netherlands to eat healthier

Peppelenbos: "There is now a lot of research showing that good nutrition is very important. Sufficient fruit and vegetables are an essential part of this. Good nutrition can significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Now that we are dealing with Corona, you see that people with health problems related to an unhealthy lifestyle have a higher risk of serious complaints when infected and need a longer recovery period. So it's also very timely to look at healthy nutrition."
The Voedingscentrum sets the standard that we should eat 250 grams of fruit and vegetables daily to stay healthy. We usually don't achieve that: on average it's about 130 grams a day. So the question is: how do you help the Netherlands to eat more fruit and vegetables?

Herman Peppelenbos, lector of Green Health at the HAS

Students investigate

"We noticed that a lot of research focuses on children or on groups that already experience health problems. We thought it would be interesting to focus on young people. That group is right under our noses: our students! Young people are entering an important stage of life. Whereas children are strongly guided by the decisions their parents make about nutrition, young people are increasingly going to decide for themselves what and when they eat. That makes it very interesting to look at how you can influence choice behavior and which meal times have the greatest potential for improvement. The evening meal often already contains a good portion of vegetables, but in Dutch households there is still a lot of potential at breakfast, lunch and snack times, because there is still little fruit and vegetables available."

"Especially breakfast, lunch and snack can be healthier"

Snack moments

It was decided to focus on the snack moments. The HAS' own environment could use an upgrade in that respect. The supply was limited, while the unhealthy snacks beckoned. In an experiment, a distribution point was created at a strategic location where students would constantly pass by. All kinds of fruit and vegetables, from bananas to celery, were offered there, initially free of charge. If the fruits and vegetables were in short supply, the next round of distribution would increase the quantity. Peppelenbos: "The impact of the intervention was measured by means of questionnaires about the eating pattern before, during and after the experiment. It was striking that the fruit and vegetables were always completely consumed, regardless of what was lying around. After analysis, it appeared that snack consumption became much healthier, especially in the group that ate little fruit and vegetables at all. Later, we repeated the experiment at Helicon, an intermediate vocational training institution, and got similar results. Incidentally, the employees were also very interested in all the fruit and vegetables, but they were not allowed to take anything as part of the research."

Health with a price tag

In a follow-up study, one variable in the experiment was adjusted: price. After all, what if you had to pay for healthy snacks? Food Innovation students went to work and created a food bar with pre-cut fruits and vegetables, where students could scoop up their own trays. Again it turned out that students appreciated the healthy offerings and were willing to pay for them.

"The challenge is: how are we going to organize the chain?"

It is obvious that the experiment deserves a permanent roll-out. Caterer and management are now discussing this together. There is still a step to be taken: how are we going to organize the chain? Because if you want to offer fresh products that are ready to eat and ready to be used, on the one hand you will have to shorten the chain. You often see unripe fruit in company canteens because of the long chain that is customary. On the other hand, a little processing is often needed to lower the threshold, so that people can easily take it home and consume it. That cutting and mixing work is something we would like to have students do, so that the offer remains affordable."

The now-graduating Food Innovation students Valerie Naus and Matty Bosch at the dispensing point

Shorter chain

This brings Peppelenbos to the importance of shorter chains. "Now the fresh product goes from producer to auction to middleman to wholesaler to caterer to HAS to consumer. That's 7 links. If producers would jointly present themselves regionally to a regional caterer, possibly supplemented by a manufacturer who can take care of the processing, that would save a lot of links. That increases the quality of the product, because you can time your delivery better. Nobody likes an unripe apple or snack tomato. So if we want people to eat healthier, that's really something to look at. A new kind of business can emerge if producers start to look at the market regionally and take large companies and institutions in their own area as the focus. Retail has traditionally been the place for the hot meal, but there are so many other meal occasions where catering and food service are calling the shots. If producers can tap into that market directly, there will be more balance between short and long chains."

"Looking at the market regionally provides opportunities"

Competing with pink cakes

Another study shows that caterers themselves also benefit from the HAS research. An MBO institution approached the HAS with a dilemma: the institution had a good caterer who had a healthy offering, but there was also a discounter supermarket nearby. Instead of having lunch at school itself, students went to that supermarket mainly for pink cookies and sausage rolls. The question was: how can we compete with such an offer if we do want to offer a healthier alternative? "Here too, we took the eating pattern as our starting point: what can we offer that is healthier, but is also seen as tasty by the students? We then developed various products, such as a wrap with lots of vegetables and vegetable nuggets. The wrap already contained about 75 grams of vegetables and even though it may not be as healthy as a salad, that's still a nice contribution to vegetable consumption."

To name health or not

In a first test we were advised by students: do not say that it is healthy and that it contains a lot of vegetables, then we will drop out. But in practice this led to doubts: what is in this stuff? There were even rumors that it contained insects. This made us realize that we have to tell them what's in it, even if we don't play the healthy card so heavily. We are now going to investigate further what that means for communication. Food Innovation students are going to develop a whole new communication concept to help the caterer offer healthy options. At the end of the day, it's all about attractive and tasty food as well as convenience. If we manage to link that to health, the 250 grams a day will work out just fine."

Together innovate

Peppelenbos' experience with research projects has made him a strong advocate of working together in new consortia with a diverse composition, a so-called open innovative ecosystem. "Not only within the HAS do we have diverse disciplines, but collaboration can be done with all kinds of parties. People often think, for example, that MBO institutions are for applied knowledge and not for research, but my experience is that it actually works very well. Knowledge institutions, producers, caterers, manufacturers, logistics partners: everyone can benefit from the research we do. If you want to develop new food concepts in order to tap new markets or optimize existing ones, you've come to the right place. And of course there are also the lectureships Nutrition and Health and Biodiversity and Soil, so projects can be very diverse. For all projects, the students are driven and like speed. That indignation about the slowness of the market, that's a great engine for innovation!"

More information

Would you like to know more about if and how HAS University of Applied Sciences can help you innovate? Please contact Herman Peppelenbos at h.peppelenbos@has.nl