Our stories

Healthier lifestyle

Health and happiness Our plant-based products contribute to a sustainable lifestyle that strikes the right balance between health and happiness. Shifting from an animal-based diet to a plant-based diet is reflective of the times and is better for the environment and the climate. The switch from fossil resources to sustainable materials, replacing certain chemicals and plastics, is for example also part of a sustainable lifestyle. Read more about it in our stories:

Chicory root fibre: Versatile with prebiotic power

Fibre has a positive effect on your health, and on your gut health in particular. This also applies to chicory root fibre, known as inulin, the dietary fibre and prebiotic extracted by Sensus from chicory root. Not all fibres, however, are prebiotics, and prebiotics are quite different to probiotics. One thing they do have in common is their beneficial effect on the function of your gut. Veerle Dam, Health Science & Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Sensus, outlines the differences between prebiotics and probiotics. She also explains when a fibre qualifies as a prebiotic, and how Sensus is gaining insights into the health effects of chicory root fibre.

Chicory root fibre: Versatile with prebiotic power

HappySoaps: Collaborating to create sustainable, plastic-free care products

Personal care and household chores products, such as hair products, soaps and detergents rely on functional ingredients to work effectively. These substances, for example to improve hair combability, are mostly produced by the petrochemical industry and create microplastics as a result. Cosun Biobased Experts is committed to replacing these products with better, plant-based alternatives. One of Biobased Experts' innovations, QUATIN®, has found its way into products in the HappySoaps brand. HappySoaps makes plastic-free and water-free cosmetics. We spoke to Sam van den Berg, Business Development Manager at Cosun Biobased Experts, and Sabine Vishnudatt, Product Developer for HappySoaps at Solid Matters B.V. about microplastics, soap bars and the collaboration between Biobased Experts and HappySoaps.

HappySoaps: Collaborating to create sustainable, plastic-free care products

A plant-based alternative to cheese, of Dutch origin

Potatoes and cheese are two icons of Dutch food culture. Potato Cheezz, Aviko Rixona's latest innovation, uniquely manages to combine these icons by turning a potato into a plant-based cheese substitute, complete with the right melt and mouthfeel. We talked to Gerbert Dijkgraaf, Business Development Manager at Aviko Rixona, about this innovative concept.

A plant-based alternative to cheese, of Dutch origin

Fascinating: Aligning new crops to human needs

Food chains are usually considered from the perspective of farmer to plate or soil to plate. Fascinating turns this around: plant-based food products are developed and crops are selected based on human needs to ensure that they fit within a sustainable and well-balanced diet. In this fourth article in the series on Fascinating, we take a closer look at the development of new protein crops and their applications from a nutritional perspective. Harm van Baar (Manager of Nutrition and Health) and Andries Olie (Senior Manager of Food, Health and Sustainability) at the Cosun Nutrition Center explain the role of the Cosun Nutrition Center in Fascinating.

Fascinating: Aligning new crops to human needs

Fidesse® simplifies the plant-based transition

Meat substitutes are here to stay, and that offers an opportunity to make this development a whole lot tastier. The Cosun Beet Company has used beet pulp, a valuable raw material that is released during sugar production, to develop Fidesse®, a high-fibre ingredient that gives plant-based products a pleasant texture and more juiciness. We talked to two members of the Fidesse team, Fabian Griens (Technical Support Specialist) and Ralph van Hooijdonk (Business Development Manager) about this new innovation.

Fidesse® simplifies the plant-based transition

Plant-based nutrition for older people: how do you find the right balance?

In the future, we will obtain more and more of our proteins from plant sources instead of animal sources. What does this protein transition mean in terms of dietary needs among older people? As we grow older, the way our body processes protein changes. In a webinar by Cosun Nutrition Centre held on 14 December, Dr. Jorn Trommelen and Dr. Ir. Pol Grootswager explained how older people can find a healthy protein balance within a plant-based diet.

Plant-based nutrition for older people: how do you find the right balance?

Plant-based diet for athletes: what to consider?

Knowledge about tomorrow’s plant-based nutrition

Healthy and sustainable food is an important issue for many people. The role of plant-based nutrition and plant-based protein is becoming increasingly important in this respect. But what effect does this have on your health? And how exactly do plant-based products fit into a sustainable diet?

Knowledge about tomorrow’s plant-based nutrition

Healthier muffins

Healthy and natural food is popular. And not without reason. A number of plant-based ingredients help you to live more healthily.

Boost your gut flora

Fermented food and drinks are a growing phenomenon in stores across the world and profitability is increasing rapidly. The advantages of chicory fibre and fibre fermentation in the large intestines are increasingly being recognised as essential for human health.

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Protein transition

Plant-based proteins Eating more plant-based proteins is healthier, more sustainable and an excellent way to help feed the growing global population. As an expert in plant-based nutrition, Cosun is committed to accelerating the protein transition. Read more about it in our stories:

Yeast forms tomorrow’s plant-based snack

Cosun Protein is developing plant-based proteins that can take over the functions of animal proteins in foods, mainly proteins from milk, egg yolk and chicken egg white. Cosun Protein's fava bean protein, Tendra, provides texture in plant-based alternatives for yoghurt, cheese and baking products. In its search for a replacement for chicken egg white, Cosun invested in Wageningen-based revyve. This foodtech scale-up extracts a functional protein from yeast, which it says is building the texture of tomorrow's food: locally sourced, circular, recognisable and with a low carbon footprint.

Yeast forms tomorrow’s plant-based snack

Tendra: A building block for an active lifestyle

The demand for plant-based alternatives is increasing. This is also the case in active nutrition, the segment aimed at consumers with an active or sportive lifestyle. Common products include protein shakes based on whey protein extracted from dairy. These shakes mainly consist of protein powder, which means that the search for a plant-based alternative needs to focus on both taste and texture. Ricky van Beers, Technical Sales Specialist at Cosun Protein, sees Tendra as a gamechanger for plant-based active nutrition that scores well on both aspects. We talked to him about the opportunities for Cosun Protein’s fava bean protein.

Tendra: A building block for an active lifestyle

Plant-based enjoyment thanks to cooperation and beets

Consumers are highly prepared to try plant-based products. Making it all the more important to convince them by offering them tasty products. As part of its ‘celebrating veggie’ strategy, Aviko is working with Cosun Beet Company and others on new, flavourful vegetable products using Fidesse®, an ingredient based on the sugar beet. Aviko Innovation Director Willem Fijten and Senior Product Manager Snackables Manfred Keizer talk about the new Aviko falafel burger and the development of other plant-based products based on Fidesse®.

Plant-based enjoyment thanks to cooperation and beets

Plant-based alternative to yoghurt, without a beany aftertaste

Can you make a plant-based alternative to yoghurt with a neutral taste as well as a good texture? Thanks to the fava bean, you can! From this sustainably grown legume, Cosun Protein extracts Tendra: the protein isolate that ticks all the boxes. Celine Cantineau is an Application Technologist at Cosun Protein. She’s developing new applications with Tendra, for example for use in dairy alternatives. We spoke to Celine about her recipe, fermentation and the future of the fava bean in plant-based applications.

Plant-based alternative to yoghurt, without a beany aftertaste

Profitable business model for plant-based proteins

Protein plays an important role in our daily diet, not only as a nutrient and building block for our body, but also as a functional ingredient in a wide range of products. These proteins are often of animal origin, from the chicken egg protein in your batter for a fluffy cake to whey protein made from cow’s milk to make chocolate mousse stable. The growing demand for plant-based products is accompanied by a growing demand for quality plant-based alternatives for functional proteins. Meeting this demand requires a profitable business model for production, from the field to the end product. This is why, as part of the Fascinating project, Cosun is working on developments related to the growing, extracting and processing of new plant-based proteins.

Profitable business model for plant-based proteins

Collaboration in Fascinating: “We work with the same farms”

For profitable and sustainable farming, a fourth crop that can achieve the same volume as grain, potatoes and beets is a welcome addition. A protein-rich crop is an obvious choice. The consumption of less animal and more plant protein may very well offer a solution for providing the world with sufficient food without depleting and contaminating the soil. Cosun is contributing to these efforts within the Fascinating project.

Collaboration in Fascinating: “We work with the same farms”

Fascinating takes protein production to the next level

How can you ensure that everyone in the world has sufficient, healthy food, even as the global population grows and the available land and raw materials are dwindling? To achieve this, we need to change how we eat: less animal protein and more plant-based. Which is why it is so crucial that we rely on an agricultural system that does not deplete or pollute the soil.

Fascinating takes protein production to the next level

Strawberry ice cream made from broad beans

Cosun Protein, a new emerging business unit at Cosun, produces plant-based proteins that can be used in food products and beverages. In doing so, the company is helping to accelerate the protein transition, a shift in the consumption of animal proteins to plant-based alternatives.

Strawberry ice cream made from broad beans

Protein from field beans

In recent decades, the world's population has started to eat more and more animal proteins, such as meat, fish, milk and eggs. In order to continue feeding the growing world population and to create a more sustainable diet in the future, a protein transition is necessary: less consumption of animal proteins and a shift to vegetable proteins. The establishment of Cosun Protein earlier this year is an important step in this direction.

Agriculture of the future

Field beans as the most promising protein crop, a new protein factory, experiments with green manure, and working together to make agriculture circular. The four great agricultural cooperatives of the North; Cosun, Agrifirm, Avebe and FrieslandCampina have been working hard in the past year to make agriculture more sustainable and food better.

Protein from sugar beet leaf

A process to extract protein from sugar beet leaf - This is one of the first results from the Green Protein Excellence Center (GPEC), which started in 2020. Petra Koenders is General Manager of GPEC, a consortium involving Cosun and partners BioscienZ, The Protein Brewery, HAS University of Applied Sciences, and Rabobank. Petra explains why this hub was established and what GPEC can deliver in both social and commercial terms.

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Climate

Towards a climate-neutral society Biobased raw materials help us in our pursuit of a climate-based society. We extract ingredients from our crops that can The ingredients we extract from our crops can replace chemicals like petroleum in cosmetics, personal care products such as shampoo, and household cleaning agents. We use the residual flows to make animal feel and green energy. Read more about it in our stories:

Cosun SCO2RE+: Identifying Scope 3 emissions

SCO2RE+ is the Cosun-wide programme to reduce the organisation’s CO2 emissions. The programme is serving as a boost and connector within the organisation, to set, monitor and achieve our goals. Under Scope 1 and 2, Cosun set the goal of reducing CO2 emissions across the entire organisation – which include, for example, direct emissions and energy procurement - by more than 45% by 2030 compared to 2018. Cosun is also committed to identifying and reducing indirect emissions, which fall under scope 3. We spoke to Bertram de Crom (Programme Manager Climate & Sustainability at Cosun), Aizo Verdonk (Junior Sustainability Specialist at Cosun) and Gerwin Beukhof (Sustainability Coordinator at Aviko) about the approach for scope 3.

Cosun SCO2RE+: Identifying Scope 3 emissions

Cosun SCO2RE+: From climate ambition to climate action

SCO2RE+ is the Cosun-wide programme to reduce the organisation’s CO2 emissions. In line with the Paris Agreement and the 2019 Dutch Climate Agreement, Cosun has set the goal of realising a 50% net CO2 reduction compared to 2018 by 2030, and to be climate neutral by 2050. With the SCO2RE+ programme, all the efforts of the various business groups regarding energy and CO2 emissions come together in one overall initiative. Within the Netherlands, and across all of the company’s sites abroad. We discussed the programme with Johan Dijkstra, senior innovation manager at Cosun Innovation, and Bertram de Crom, Climate & Sustainability programme manager at Cosun Innovation.

Cosun SCO2RE+: From climate ambition to climate action

Energy demand for thickening process on a thick juice line

The Netherlands has the goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. Cosun is helping realise this ambition with its SCO2RE+ programme. The various business groups within Cosun are working day and night to reduce energy consumption and thus CO2 emissions. We spoke to Henk Verhoeff, Plant Development Manager at Sensus, and Koen Stam, Utilities Process Technologist at Sensus, about the steps their company is taking at the Roosendaal plant to achieve its 50% reduction goal.

Energy demand for thickening process on a thick juice line

Scoring double with a heatpump

Cosun aims to reduce total CO2 emissions within the organisation by 50% by 2030. SCO2RE+ is the overarching programme within Cosun to realise this ambition. Aviko Rixona has set its own goal under the programme of halving emissions by 2030 compared to 2018. Within SCO2RE+, electrification and reducing energy consumption have been identified as the most desirable and efficient ways to reduce CO2 emissions. Heat pumps can win on two levels, as the new heat pump at the Aviko Rixona plant in Warffum is proving.

A dazzling sustainability performance

On the outskirts of Puttershoek, right on the Oude Maas river, is Cosun Solar Park – a 21-hectare renewable energy installation surrounded by an embankment. Though not immediately visible to passers-by and locals, it has a huge impact. The over 67,000 solar panels provide an amount of energy equal to the consumption of 8,200 households. Paul Hagens, site developer at Cosun Beet Company and project manager of Cosun Solar Park, explains how the solar park developed into what it is today.

Crystallization process with half the amount of gas: V-RISE

Drastic steps are needed to emit significantly less CO2. Reversing the core of your production process, for example.

Crystallization process with half the amount of gas: V-RISE

Smoothie bottle from sugar beets

From seed to customer, we take people and the environment into account. We can extract ingredients from our crops that can replace chemical ingredients, for example in cosmetics and home care products. We also make green energy from residual flows. Biobased raw materials help us on the way to a climate neutral society. With what we do, we want to have a positive impact on the climate and the planet.

Bitters as antifungals

Many plants make their own antibodies against diseases. If you remove those substances, you can use them in other crops as a natural crop protection agent. More biological and less chemical crop protection makes crops more environmentally friendly.

Cosun Groeikracht

Sufficient healthy food, plant-based raw materials, and a landscape that people enjoy. That’s what growers are aiming for. But recognition for their work is fading and the pressure from regulations and legislation is increasing. The distance to citizens is growing and for an individual grower such a gap is hard to bridge.

Energy neutral with solar panels

Ten years ago, arable farmer Peter van den Hoek from Heinenoord invested in solar panels. To make the energy supply of his own arable farm more sustainable and to become less dependent on fossil energy, but also to generate an extra source of income. He is now starting to reap the benefits.

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Circularity

Value in the entire plant Circularity and waste prevention is a guiding principle in everything we do. Together we are committed to unlocking the full potential of our crops. We use every part of the plant and recover ingredients and energy from our residual flows. Read more about it in our stories:

Duynie Group and Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling foundation collaborating to transition to circular chains

The Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling foundation has a single mission: to cut food waste in the Netherlands in half by the year 2030. Toine Timmermans is director of the Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling foundation and has been committed since 2018 to reducing food waste in the Netherlands by one billion kilos a year. The Duynie Group, part of Cosun, recently joined the foundation as a stakeholder. We talked to Nicole Timmerman, Business Developer for Circular Agrifood at the Duynie Group, and Toine Timmermans about the new partnership.

Duynie Group and Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling foundation collaborating to transition to circular chains

Wrapping paper from pulp

Paper made from beet pulp? That means paper with considerably lower CO2 emissions and that is just as strong as paper made from fresh wood fibre alone. Paper manufacturer Crown Van Gelder has seen the potential of beet pulp to achieve greater sustainability for some time. Thanks to Cosun R&D, the Cosun Beet Company and Novidon (part of the Duynie Group), beet pulp can now be used for professional paper production. Van Gilse® granulated sugar that you buy in the shop comes in packaging made of sugar beet paper.

The power of the co-product

The world's population is increasing. In the future, we will have to feed more and more mouths. Working on more land to produce more food is not an obvious solution to this matter. That is why Duynie Group thinks about every kilogram of the crop in question, because not all of the crops and ingredients processed in the food industry end up on plates for eating. The leftovers are called co-products, which go, for example, into a fermenter or end up as animal feed, ingredients for pets or pet food, and technical applications such as wallpaper glue. This prevents waste and ensures that crops have the greatest possible value. This is the mission that Duynie Group is committed to.

Warmth thanks to sugar beets

‘The Netherlands has to become more efficient with its energy consumption and use more renewable energy. Only then can we achieve the Paris climate goals. CO2-neutral by 2050 is the goal. All Cosun companies participate in the SCO2RE programme with the aim of achieving this goal,’ says Bertram de Crom, Corporate Manager of Environmental Affairs at Cosun

Sustainable egg boxes made from potato starch

Which ingredients and materials can you reuse? Cosun is continuously investigating this. Working in a circular way ensures that co-products gain more value and it’s also good for the environment. Christiaan Oei, Commercial Manager at Novidon, explains how this works.

Sustainable egg boxes made from potato starch

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Cosun 125 years

Cosun Celebrates 125th Anniversary Since 1899, we have been processing our crops into everyday products. We have grown into an organisation with over 8,000 members and tens of thousands of employees and suppliers. Together, we unlock the full potential of plants to produce smart solutions for current and future generations. In a series of portraits, we talk with our members and employees.

Employee portrait: Leo Pingen

Since 1899, we have been processing our crops into everyday products. We have grown into an organisation with over 8,000 members and tens of thousands of employees and suppliers. Together, we unlock the full potential of plants to produce smart solutions for current and future generations. In a series of portraits, we talk with our members and employees. Today, we talk Leo Pingen, senior product manager and product developer at Aviko Rixona.

Employee portrait: Arie Petter

Since 1899, we have been processing our crops into everyday products. We have grown into an organisation with over 8,000 members and tens of thousands of employees and suppliers. Together, we unlock the full potential of plants to produce smart solutions for current and future generations. In a series of portraits, we talk with our members and employees. Today, we talk to Arie Petter, service engineer at WTB Sensus, Zwolle.

Grower portrait: Arwin Bos

Since 1899, we have been processing our crops into everyday products. We have grown into an organisation with over 8,000 members and tens of thousands of employees and suppliers. Together, we unlock the full potential of plants to produce smart solutions for current and future generations. In a series of portraits, we talk with our members and employees. Today, we speak with Arwin Bos, Arable Farmer and Chairman of the Board at Cosun.

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