
Sustainable proteins
We provide solutions for plant- and animal-based proteins and find new ways to produce healthy and diverse proteins to benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.
At DSM we’re helping?to prevent the world’s colossal food loss and waste?by creating more resource-efficient food production, ingenious packaging, antioxidants that keep food nutritious and safe, and better animal nutrition.?Our aim is to reduce the world’s $940 billion food waste bill every year - which also accounts for about 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss.
Today, around one-third of the world’s food is lost or wasted during production or consumption. This is why we strive to work with our business partners to tackle this challenge in food production, transportation and consumption. We want to make better use of the raw materials and get more from the food that we actually use?-?while ensuring food safety, preserving nutritional value and taste, and extending shelf life. Here are just a few ways we’re achieving it.?
How do you produce a delicious, nutritious product that lasts? Our Pack-Age??cheese ripening product offers an ingenious way of protecting the product against mold during natural ripening, thus delivering a fantastic, fresh cheese to the consumer. The science behind Pack-Age is based on a moisture-permeable, breathable membrane that eliminates the need for an inedible crust. This avoids up to 10% of the cheese being lost. What’s more, the increased packaging efficiency lowers the carbon footprint of cheese production by 10%. Good for people, planet and profit.
If all the world’s naturally ripened Gouda & Parmesan cheeses were ripened with Pack-Age, we’d save 3.6 billion liters of milk; 200,000 tons less cheese would be wasted; and there would be €200 million more profit to share throughout the value chain.
If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, behind the United States and China. And the financial cost is almost as serious as the environmental one – amounting to an astounding $1 trillion each year.
One way we can fight this is by tackling food spoilage - a deterioration in color, texture, smell or taste – which is what we are doing at DSM. With antioxidants like vitamins C and E, we are creating a more natural and scientifically proven solution that slows down the oxidation processes, extends the ‘shelf life’ and reduces waste. Foods that last longer after opening are great for consumers’ pockets, but also good for their health - thanks to the intrinsic health benefits of our vitamins.?
To keep food safe and nutritious, and prevent it from being wasted, we’ve created our thermoplastic solution for food packaging. The semi-crystalline structure of our Akulon? material provides a strong barrier against oxygen and aromas, while offering excellent durability. The result is that it extends the shelf life of packaged food, protecting both fresh and processed foods from spoilage, aging and discoloration. Not a bad package…
One clear way to maintain resource efficiency, improve yield and tackle food waste from protein products like chicken and eggs is with animal feed solutions. Our Hy-D? feed solution improves bird health and bone strength, including eggshells. This benefits animal welfare, makes more chicken meat available for consumers, and also helps strengthen eggshells - which means 15% fewer eggs being broken and instead remaining saleable.?
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).
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’.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Supported by the EU's European Institute of Innovation and Technology,?EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation initiative. Comprising a consortium of key industry players, startups, research centres and universities, EIT Food aims to collaborate closely with consumers to develop new knowledge and technology-based products and services that will ultimately deliver a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle for all Europeans.
We provide solutions for plant- and animal-based proteins and find new ways to produce healthy and diverse proteins to benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.
Balanced nutrition plays a key role in keeping the indicators linked to NCDs at healthy levels.
CanolaPRO? is DSM's new sustainable plant-based protein that can improve a huge range of non-GMO vegetarian and vegan products including meat analogues, plant-based dairy, shakes, energy bars, cereals and baked goods.