News and events

From March 5th to 7th, the FOOD2030 Networks Conference took place in Brussels, drawing stakeholders from across sectors to address the urgent need for transformative innovation in the global food system. Amidst growing concerns about the sustainability of current agricultural practices, the conference served as a platform for collaborative efforts to tackle pressing challenges. HDHL – through its secretariat at ZonMw - is one of the partners within the CLEVERFOOD consortium, leading a task on organizing policy dialogues in 7 countries.

On November 6-7, 2023, the conference: 'Advances in Immunology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases' took place in Moshi, Tanzania. This conference was organized by the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo) in collaboration with the Radboudumc and showcased the findings and implications of two central projects: TransMic and its follow-up, TransInf. Both projects, funded by HDHL, shed light on the intricate relationships between diet, gut microbiome, and overall health.

The highly anticipated 14th European Nutrition Conference took place in Belgrade from 14-17 November, hosted by the Serbian Nutrition Society and the Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS). FENS President Philip Calder deemed the event a "resounding success".

HDHL hosted a virtual satellite event “Youth-Policymaker Dialogue: Developing Policy on Ultra-Processed Foods” on March 15. This satellite event was in collaboration with the Bioeconomy Changemakers Festival.

The objective of HDHL’s webinar was to facilitate the dialogue among policymakers and young researchers in the health and food sectors, with the ultimate aim of generating policy recommendations. This dialogue spanned the local, national, and European level to contribute to food systems transformation keeping in mind the benefits for human health. The event centered on ultra-processed foods.

On the 13th of March 2024, Healthy Diet, Healthy Life (HDHL) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), an important stakeholder and HDHL Stakeholder Advisory Board Member of HDHL, jointly hosted a workshop in Madrid, Spain. The aim of this joint workshop was to facilitate policy-science and stakeholder-science dialogues to increase the impact of R&I investments in policy development and coherence, supporting the transformation to a healthier, more sustainable society.

With a growing population, there is a higher demand for food, animal feed and biofuel. Together we need to ensure that the food supply chain becomes more sustainable by, amongst other things, using less water. This means decreasing the use of water during the production, but also decreasing food waste so there is less water waste and finding safe ways to reuse it while preventing water pollution. However, it is also essential that we ensure that food products remain nutritious, safe, and affordable to consume while using and wasting less water. HDHL used this opportunity to bring together representatives from a health, food, or systemic perspective as well as researchers, policymakers, and other institutes.

The term ultra-processed foods often ignites strong opinions and even controversies. HDHL organised a webinar with key experts on the topic, to shine a more balanced light on ultra- processed foods from various perspectives and to explore the latest scientific insights into health, equity and sustainability. Questions such as what are the advantages and disadvantages? What is the role of ultra-processed foods from a health equity perspective?