Within the West Flemish centre of expertise and innovation NuHCaS, collaboration brings together researchers and professionals from various disciplines in the food and healthcare sectors to foster innovation and knowledge exchange. Ellen Fierens of Flanders’ FOOD reports that this year’s ambition is to expand the collaboration to other regions in Europe.

Six years ago, the West Flemish parties TUA West, POM West Flanders and VIVES Hogeschool decided to partner with ILVO and Flanders’ FOOD in launching NuHCaS (Nutrition Health Care System). They encountered the same barriers and knowledge gaps in the link between food and health. “This gap is noticeable on a number of levels, such as education, policy and sectors with a lack of knowledge sharing and understanding of the needs on both sides,” says Ellen Fierens, manager of Flanders’ FOOD. “Researchers are often deeply involved in their own research within the confines of their organisation and don’t always have a clear view of the broader needs in their own sector – let alone in other sectors.”

The goal of NuHCaS is to ensure that the food and healthcare sectors get to know each other better, fostering more collaborations. “This will ensure that food is placed higher on the agenda and its potential is better utilised”, says Fierens.

Needs

Fierens: “We have held conversations with both the food and healthcare sectors to get a handle on their needs in terms of knowledge, innovation and implementation. We wanted to know what they need in order to grow stronger over the next decade and to make better use of nutrition for a healthier population."

For both sectors, a roadmap has been created based on these talks, outlining their needs in various concepts such as quality (raw materials and processes), data (what do we eat and how does this relate to health data), information and education, and high-level collaboration (between the food industry and the healthcare sector).

Challenges

The challenge now is to implement these roadmaps one step at a time through various projects. "For example, that is why a project has been launched to investigate how we can efficiently monitor what each resident of a care facility eats and how this can be linked to their health data. The next step is to use this insight to adjust nutrition (advice) in a way that has a positive impact on the patient’s health”, Fierens continues.

"Another example is a project that examined the impact of processing on meal quality. From this, recommendations were formulated to optimise the processing at various stages of the supply chain and to better align them with each other. These results are available on the NuHCaS website."

These are a few examples of ongoing or completed projects. In the future, more initiatives will be launched to address the needs of both sectors as effectively as possible.

Ingredient and food industry

Fierens has some advice for the ingredient and food industry. "Listen to the end customer or the next link in the chain, such as the professional kitchen preparing food for a patient or the consumer cooking/reheating at home. Understand how their system works and ensure that the products you deliver fit seamlessly into it. It’s important to gear the goals, quality standards and processing methods to the next stages in the process. Ensuring consistent, optimal quality and nutritional value is a major challenge that still requires much work."

Focus on nutrition

Fierens also notes that current training programmes in the health care sector pay little attention to nutrition, more specifically in GP training or other advanced medical courses. “At the same time, the training of (catering) chefs or food processing engineers almost completely ignores the impact of nutrition on health. However, it is essential that both professional groups have at least some understanding of the relationship between their respective fields.”

Various ministers

Fierens sees fragmentation between these disciplines on a policy level. “The sectors and policymaking are separated, with different ministers for innovation, agriculture, care and public health at both the Flemish and federal levels, while an integrated approach is essential to the link between nutrition and health. We must keep repeating our story to the various government departments: nutrition plays a crucial role in healthcare and well-being. In this narrative, it is also important to include the perspective of food producers – meaning the primary sector, farmers, the processing sector and the food industry – as their contribution is essential to the bigger picture. This is the message we must keep sharing consistently. In doing so, NuHCaS is actively working to convey our vision to the right people. The practitioners in the field are quickly on board with our narrative and applaud our efforts.”

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