Plenary Session – 13:30 – 14:45
13:45 – 14:05 – Salt: a silent killer.
Martin de Borst, Nephrologhist, UMCG and Professor of Medicine, RUG
Salt is essential for life. Yet, our diet contains too much salt, causing high blood pressure, heart and kidney disease. The early stages of these diseases go without complaints, making salt a silent killer. Lowering salt intake is one of the key steps we can take to avoid these diseases and save thousands of lives and billions of euros. But how do we reverse our salt addiction?
14:05 – 14:25 – A healthy population: what’s the role of a supermarket?
Chantal Goenee, Advisor Sustainability and Health, Lidl
About 70% of what we eat, we buy in a supermarket. That is why supermarkets play a crucial role in what we call our food environment. One supermarket that dares to take responsibility regarding this topic is Lidl. Their mission is to make the healthy and sustainable choice the easy and affordable choice. This sounds great, but what does this mean on the shelf? And what are the concrete targets and ambitions of Lidl towards the future? Join the presentation of Chantal Goenee, advisor health and sustainability at Lidl and find out how Lidl looks at health and its responsibility regarding a healthy population, what the strategy of Lidl is for product reformulation and the reduction of particularly salt in their products and what are the plans and ambitions of Lidl towards the future.
14:25 – 14:45 – Reducing Salt, from a sugar perspective.
Rens Vandeberg, Deputy Director / Manager Knowledge & Information, Diabetes Fonds
The Diabetes Fonds has a long track record in raising awareness of sugar consumption and facilitating public/private alliances to address a lower sugar intake and prevent diabetes 2. What can we learn from the experiences in lowering sugar consumption and what should be the role of the food industry with respect to reducing salt consumption?
Parallel sessions – 15:15 – 15:45
1. Yama’s view on salt reduction and business case
Martijn Muijsers, Key Account Manager, YAMA & Laurine Krol, Product developer, Double Aces
Insights into Yama’s unique approach to tackling sodium reduction without compromising on taste. Using their innovative Umami Gamma range, Yama demonstrates how flavor enhancement and health can go hand in hand. Laurine will illustrate this with a concrete business case, showing the practical application and impact of their solution in real-world product development.
2. Reformulation of Baker’s Salt
Babs Bruil, Projectmanager, Nederlands Bakkerij Centrum
The Netherlands Bakery Centre (NBC) has launched a new project aimed at reformulating Baker’s Salt with an ambitious objective: to promote the healthiness of bread and enhance the overall image of the bakery sector by reducing the sodium content of Baker’s Salt by 30 to 60% and enriching it with minerals. The development of this healthier salt offers a strong response to renewed government policies, contributes to better public health through improved bread composition, and strengthens the reputation of both bread and the bakery industry.
3. SHIFT-SALT: Towards healthy diets through salt reduction in soups and sauces
Dave Jung, Manager Research and Development, Euroma & Ariette Matser, Senior scientist Sustainable Processing, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research
SHIFT-SALT aims to make healthy choices easy for consumers and food manufacturers. In this public-private partnership, ingredient suppliers, producers of soups and sauces, a retail organisation and knowledge partners work on salt reduction in soups and sauces. The consortium will present the developed approach to designing combinations of minerals, taste enhancers, and maskers for substantial salt reduction and the insights of the ongoing evaluation of the potential of this approach in soups and sauces.
Project partners: Koninklijke Euroma B.V., Zwanenberg Food Group B.V., Burg Groep B.V., Brenntag Holding GmbH, Scelta Inside B.V., Albert Heijn B.V., Essensor B.V., Wageningen Food & Biobased Research
Parallel sessions – 15:50 – 16:20
4. How to improve Nutri-Score with natural Novasal
Anko Vos, Business Development Manager, Nedmag & Daan Faber, Founder, Mr. Kitchen
Independent and plant-based food brand Mr Kitchen’s has spent the past two years delving into the culinary potential of natural magnesium salt Novasal. They wanted to enhance the Nutri-Score of their Veggie Spreads to A. Chef Maarten: The key was to enhance the nutritional profile without altering the familiar taste of our popular sandwich spreads. After extensive tasting and testing, we succeeded and now recognize the strong potential of this natural and local ingredient.
Together with Anko Vos from Nedmag B.V.—the company behind Novasal — Mr Kitchen’s Daan Faber will share the story of this promising journey and, of course, let you taste the result!
5. Crunching Down on Sodium: how to retain essential flavour properties
Sheelagh Pentony, VP Marketing, Kerry
Kerry’s innovative solution for sodium reduction without compromising taste. Leveraging cutting-edge science and unique in-house capabilities, Tastesense™ Salt combines natural extracts, peptides, and fermentation to create rich, multidimensional flavor. Discover how Kerry’s experts are tackling sodium reduction challenges to deliver more sustainable, nutritious products.
6. ‘How to reduce sodium content without losing critical functionality’
Stefan de Wit, Product Management, Corbion
Salt plays an important role in yield, flavor, and shelf life; so how can manufacturers reduce sodium content in sauces, dressings, and condiments without losing critical functionality?
Corbion’s naturally derived fermentation portfolio of flavors and lactate salts helps compensate for saltiness lost when sodium content is reduced in savory and meat products.
Corbion will show that with our sodium reduction ingredients help control water activity and achieve a salty, umami taste in products like sausages, deli meats and seafood.
