Healthcare
Voedingscentrum
The Netherlands Nutrition Centre states that it translates the science of healthy, sustainable and safe eating into practice, independently and without commercial interest. The foundation has been fully funded by central government since it was set up in 1941, through grants from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, and accepts no money from companies. Its best-known product is the Wheel of Five; alongside it there are recipes and practical tools such as the meal-swap guide, the food storage guide and the calorie checker, plus a separate section for professionals such as dietitians, GPs and child health workers.
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What this source does not give you
This is general information for the population, not a treatment guideline and not individual dietary advice. Its education models rest on consensus reports — the most important being the Dutch Health Council's dietary guidelines — and that evidence lives there rather than on the site itself. For a question involving a medical diet or a personal situation, this is not the source.
Frequently asked questions
- Who funds the Nutrition Centre?
- Central government, and by its own account fully so since it was founded in 1941. Specifically, through grants from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature. That funding arrangement is exactly the argument the foundation itself makes for its independence: its income does not depend on the sector it writes about.
- What is the Wheel of Five based on?
- On scientific consensus reports; the key consensus report behind its education models is the Dutch Health Council's dietary guidelines. The Nutrition Centre therefore does not conduct primary research leading to the Wheel of Five itself, but translates existing advice into a model usable in practice. Anyone wanting the underlying evidence has to go on to the Health Council.
- Does the Nutrition Centre accept money from the food industry?
- No. The foundation states explicitly that it accepts no money from companies, although under conditions it does work with business networks to distribute its messages. To avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest it stopped managing a professorial chairs fund with business contributions in 2011.
- Is there material for professionals?
- Yes, the site has a separate section for professionals, aimed among others at dietitians, GPs and child health workers, and at those working on school nutrition and healthy food environments. That does not change the nature of the source: it remains information — material to work with and explain from, not a treatment guideline and not a substitute for dietary treatment.