Healthy diets for all within planetary boundaries

Tackling malnutrition

Helping vulnerable people

Getting better food to undernourished children makes them 33% more likely to escape the vicious cycle of poverty (according to our long-term partner the World Food Programme). There are many statistics on the challenge we face in feeding the world, but this one summarizes the life-changing role that better nutrition can play in giving vulnerable people everywhere a brighter future (especially in the first 1,000 days of life). It’s why we’re focused on using all the great nutritional science at our disposal to end ‘hidden hunger’, a condition of deficiencies in vitamins and minerals that afflicts two billion people worldwide.

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When it comes to tackling malnutrition, we take our lead from the SDGs - particularly SDG 2, which advocates ‘zero hunger’ and aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Our Nutrition Improvement Solutions

Affordable nutrition for micronutrient-deficient populations

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of vitamins, nutritional ingredients and food fortification technologies we’re well placed to develop and deliver better nutrition for people deficient in these ingredients. It’s why at DSM our team working on Nutritional Improvement provides a range of nutrient-rich foods ranging from micronutrient powders to fortified rice while working with humanitarian organizations, food companies and social enterprises to reach broad populations at scale.

We’re putting all our nutritional science expertise to good use by helping people who are malnourished lead fuller lives. It’s a big job: worldwide, more than 800 million people are still chronically undernourished, while around two billion suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. However, our essential micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are now fortifying the diets of approximately 100 million people every year..

Working in partnership

One great way to improve food for people in Africa is to work with Africa Improved Foods (AIF). So, we invested in a factory in Kigali, Rwanda, that produces fortified foods for 1.5 million malnourished children and young women… every day. Soon we expect that number to hit two million people – which will reduce growth stunting in Rwandan children by 6% (from 38% to 32% by 2020) – giving tens of thousands of youngsters increased hope of fulfilling their potential in life.

But that’s only part of the story. Around 300 staff members work at the factory, producing porridge flours with added milk powder, vitamins, and minerals. And all this is based on the produce of around 9,000 local farmers, working towards healthier and brighter lives for all.

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Advocating

We work with a broad and diverse range of organizations across the world to shape and influence the nutrition agenda. We do so in different coalitions and partnerships addressing the different forms of malnutrition, as well as shifting the food system to healthy and sustainable production and consumption. This includes our long-standing partnership with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

FReSH ideas on food

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) programme, Food Reform for Sustainability and Health (FReSH), aims to drive sustainable and future-proof food systems, advocate the necessary dietary switches to improve peoples’ health within planetary boundaries, and understand and influence consumer behavior. We work in close cooperation with the EAT Foundation and the WBCSD partners - such as Danone, Unilever, Nestlé, Evonik, Cargill, Buhler Group and Kellogg - all while developing and promoting business solutions. We are an active member of the Leadership Committee and of various workstreams, such as ‘Proteins’, ‘Positive Nutrition’, ‘Food Loss and Waste’ and ‘True Cost of Food’.

Partners in Food Solutions

We’re a founding member of this multi-sector partnership, which also includes General Mills, Cargill, The Hershey Company, Bühler and Ardent Mills. Partners in Food Solutions serves more than 600 small and growing food companies throughout Africa, strengthening food security, improving nutrition and increasing economic development by making the food processing sector more competitive.

Sun Business Network

The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network recruits and supports companies who pledge to contribute to the improvement of global nutrition. We help with the Network’s recruitment and management of around 186 companies.

Sight and Life

Sight and Life is a humanitarian nutrition think tank aimed at eliminating all forms of malnutrition in children and women of childbearing age - thus improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. We work with the organization by exchanging, co-creating and advocating new scientific insights to help those who need it most.

TIFN

TiFN is a Netherlands-based public-private organization that pursues fundamental research in food and nutrition. Natural economic social and consumer sciences work closely together. TiFN has a strong focus on pre-competitive, long-term, strategic research. DSM collaborates with TiFN in different fields, some of which are nutrition and health, sustainable protein processing, sensory and structure.

UNICEF

We work with UNICEF to deliver better nutrition to at-risk children and mothers in Nigeria. Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goal number two (ending hunger), our partnership focuses on nourishing mothers and children during the crucial first 1,000 days of children’s lives, from conception until age two. Another goal is to spur similar action in other countries where malnutrition is rife, as well as advocating best practices in micronutrient supplementation worldwide. 

Vitamin Angels

Vitamin Angels is dedicated to reducing child mortality among at-risk populations worldwide by advancing the availability, access and use of essential micronutrients, especially vitamin A. We work with Vitamin Angels to help expand their global reach and impact, especially in their efforts to work with local NGOs on locally sustainable micronutrient supply and distribution systems.

World Food Programme (WFP)

The DSM-WFP partnership, Improving Nutrition, Improving Lives, is stronger than ever since its inception in 2007, boosting the nutritional value of the food that the WFP distributes to vulnerable people. In fact, around 39.4 million people were nourished through our partnership in 2017. We also work with the WFP on training and development initiatives and employee fundraising campaigns.

World Vision

DSM and World Vision work together in a nutrition partnership that creates shared value for all stakeholders, including consumers. Our work involves investing in ways to get nutritionally improved foods to the most vulnerable people – through staple food fortification and bold new delivery systems for nutritionally improved food.

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  • Reducing food loss & waste

    To tackle food loss and waste we’re helping to create more resource-efficient food production, ingenious packaging, antioxidants that keep food nutritious and safe, and better animal nutrition.

  • Nourishing the needy

    As the leading science-based supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and nutritional lipids, DSM is addressing Hidden Hunger.

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