Villa Flora center of research into healthier eating habits

During the symposium "Limburg: healthiest horticultural region!" at the Brightlands Campus in Venlo, Professor Remco Havermans gave a talk about his research. On the campus of Maastricht University in Villa Flora he researches the psychology behind healthy eating. The common thread is how consumers start eating more healthy food, such as vegetables.

Innovation can be part of the solution to the problem that people eat too few vegetables. Innovation must further increase the supply of healthy food in the region. Limburg's ambition is to become an international leader in this field. The question Havermans is asking is: how do we get consumers to eat more vegetables and other healthy foods? "That is not yet so simple. Take healthy snacks, for example. Consider that 90 percent of the new food products on the supermarket shelves are gone within a year."

A state-of-the-art research center is available to the professor and his team at Villa Flora. In addition to the classic research facilities, there is a laboratory specially equipped for conducting taste tests. Among other things, he uses this for research into how you can turn rather boring dishes into something exciting. "This can be done, for example, by using herbs," Havermans says.

In order to get people to eat more healthily, Havermans says it is also necessary for knowledge about preparing healthy food yourself to increase further. Despite the many cooking programmes on TV and cookery books, he believes there is still a lack of knowledge about what you can do with fresh produce to create a tasty meal. He also calls for more information and government control through taxes. It is still the case that unhealthy options are cheaper than the healthy alternatives.

Source: De Limburger