Successful product innovation with Dutch Choices criteria
May 2th, 2016
Recent study results by the Dutch Choices Foundation IKB demonstrate that the nutritional composition of many logo bearing products within both basic food products and non-basic food products, has significantly improved over time. The product group that demonstrates the greatest impact of the Choices logo is margarines. Compared to 2006, the average amount of salt in margarines with the Choices logo has been reduced by 75%.
The impact of the Choices logo can also be seen in other product groups. For instance in water-based sauces: the average amount of salt and of added sugar has been reduced by 27% and 35%, respectively. The energy level decreased with 25% while the number of products in this category that comply with the criteria substantially increased. In many other product groups the salt level has been reduced significantly: for example in bread products with 14%, in emulsified sauces with 9%, in soups with 5% and in cookies with 15%.
Processed meat products show a decrease of saturated fat of almost 25%, milk-based beverages of 49%. The trans fatty acid content of cookies was even almost fully eliminated with an average reduction of 75%.
The Dutch Choices Foundation carried out this analysis to study the impact of the Choices criteria on product innovation over the past 10 years. To what extent do Dutch food producers and retailers innovate their products after having obtained the logo, as a result of tightening of the criteria? The Choices criteria are revised every four years. In this study only data of products that already carried the Choices logo was used, thus product improvement that took place to qualify for the criteria when entering the programme was not taken into account. The study of Ellis Vyth et al. (2010) describes the impact on food products to qualify for the Choices logo. Combined with the preliminary results of this studies, we conclude that the Choices criteria have greatly impacted food product innovation.
Read the full preliminary report (PDF) here, or contact the Dutch Choices secretariat for more information.