PJF (Jan) de Vries

With more than 16 years of experience in the Research & Development of the food industry, respectively in the Dairy Industry (Friesland Coberco from 1994-2006) and the Bakery Ingredient Supplies Industry (CSM from 2006-2010), I now work as consultant to help in the application of Nutrition Sciences in food innovation. Before starting to work for the food industry I contributed to several advices from the Dutch Food and Nutrition Council in the Netherlands. With my background in Biology, Human Nutrition and Pharmacology I am able to understand a wide variety of scientific domains that touch upon nutrition and health.
In 2003, together with prof. Frans Kok and dr. Theo Ockhuizen, we founded the Dutch Academy of Nutrition Sciences. During my career I have been an active member of the societies in the Netherland involved in nutrition sciences, amongst others by board memberships and participation in several working groups of the societies, and as Dutch representative at several General Assemblies of the Federation of Nutrition Societies (FENS) and at IUNS GAs.
During my industrial employment I actively participated in several Task Forces and Expert Groups of ILSI-Europe, represented my employers in the Top Institute Food and Nutrition in the Netherlands and represented CSM in the industrial platform of the European Healthgrain Project.
In September 2010 I started my consultancy. Since early 2017 I am a member of the Nutrition Cooperation Consultancies in the Netherlands.
Since the installation in 2010 I have, mostly voluntarily, participated in the Healthgrain Forum, amongst others as board member, to support any activity that relates to the promotion of healthy and whole grain products. In addition, I have been actively involved in the organisation and conduction of several Whole Grain Summits in the last decade. Since recently I am as well vice-president of the Whole Grain Initiative that was founded in Autumn 2019 and am involved in the organisation of the next WGS in Rome from 25-27th of October 2021.
Furthermore, I am member of the Ethical Committee of the University Medical Hospital in Groningen since 2015 and recently joined the Ethical Committee Oost-Nederland. Last but not least, in 2015, together with prof. Edith Feskens (Wageningen University, NL), I have taken the initiative to start a discussion group in the Netherlands, Nutrition in Transition, that aims to facilitate the discussion of the future of nutrition sciences how to improve its capability and credibility. At the conference of the FENS in Dublin 2019, FENS decided to prioritize three subtopics the NiT group has identified, to set up 3 working groups at European level, in connection to the American Society for Nutrition and the Nutrition Society of Australia. The process of these working groups is supervised by a Steering committee composed by prof. Philip Calder (Southampton University, UK) as chair, me as secretary and the chairs of the three working groups.