Consumer science: key enabler of healthy and sustainable dietary changes
It’s no secret that today’s world faces a large range of critical health and sustainability challenges. It is also known that what people consume, how, when, where and why is of great influence.
We help to change consumer behaviour and your products for the better
Manufacturers, food service organisations and retailers previously had to satisfy “traditional” consumer needs like safe food that’s tasty, convenient and offers good value for money. But these days, there is a growing need to provide healthier and more sustainable options too that consumers are willing to buy. Of course, this need is also actively endorsed and driven by policymakers.
This shift is crucial to remain relevant for tomorrow’s world, with an enduring business model. Our consumer researchers at WUR can help you take a robust deep-dive into your products and their end-users. We will support you in enhancing products and designing interventions that result in healthy and sustainable dietary changes.
About the Wageningen consumer research group
We believe that a change in food consumption behaviour will contribute to better human and planetary health. We partner with the Dutch government and all actors in the agrifood chain around the world and deliver sound and impactful insights into why consumers behave as they do, and what interventions are effective. Together, we can strengthen your positioning as an engaged player or an informed policymaker. This will enable you to take a strong stand for consumers and the planet.
Learn more about our team and our expertise
Together with you, we can help:
Personalising dietary advice to promote health
Whether you are a food manufacturer, retailer, caterer or policymaker, the chances are that you’ve heard of Personalised Nutrition (PN). A personalised dietary approach helps people make healthy and sustainable food choices in a way that best suits them. These are choices that both optimise their health and fit their personality and social environment. This approach is very useful in this era of personalisation, where consumers increasingly want to be in control of their own health and wellbeing.
Making healthy and sustainable choices easy for youngsters
The roots of food preferences and eating habits sprout early, extending their influence into later years. The challenge lies in shaping these habits to be healthy and sustainable, ensuring a lasting impact on the wellbeing of children and adolescents, and creating a healthy future for the planet and the next generations. How? By empowering youngsters and those around them with knowledge, skills, motivation and optimal development of food preferences, and by ensuring a supportive environment that makes the healthy and sustainable choice the easy choice.
Increasing the consumption of plant-based food products
In the pursuit of long-term human and planetary health, the protein transition is all about driving, and consolidating, the shift towards more sustainable protein consumption. This paradigm shift calls for adequate products, interventions and supportive policies. And, despite the expansion of alternative protein options, the consumption of meat and dairy has barely decreased.
Why choose the Wageningen consumer research group as your knowledge partner?
Because we deliver:
- Access to our food research facilities
- Robust results in eating behaviour change, product properties and product acceptance
- Profound expertise in successful, long-term eating behaviour change backed by science
- Forward thinking about upcoming trends, challenges and interventions relating to consumer behaviour
- Solutions that fit reality for different consumer segments and contexts