Royal DSM, a global purpose-led science-based company, unveiled a series of new quantifiable commitments aimed to address urgent societal and environmental challenges linked to how the world produces and consumes food by 2030.

The company is among the first in the consumer ingredient sector to make its societal impact explicit through a set of measurable food system commitments. These commitments cover three areas where the company believes it can make the greatest positive impact together with its business partners: Health for People, Health for Planet and Healthy Livelihoods.

Through investment in its (bio)science-based innovations, extensive partnerships, and advocacy activities, the company aims to help deliver change to ensure accessible, affordable, healthy nutrition and healthy livelihoods within planetary boundaries. The company’s new strategic food system commitments by 2030 are to enable the micronutrient gap of 800 million vulnerable people to be closed  and support the immunity of 500 million people. It is also working to ensure double-digit on-farm livestock emission reductions and reach 150 million people with nutritious, sustainable plant-based protein foods. Further it intends to support the livelihoods of 500,000 smallholder farmers across value chains together with partners.

Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze, co-CEOd, said, “The way we produce and consume food as a society contributes to major global challenges, such as climate change, malnutrition and poverty. To solve this we need to collectively rethink our food systems from farm to fork. As a purpose-led global science-based leader in health, nutrition and bioscience, we’ve been?playing our part and applied our resources and expertise to create positive change for instance through our food fortification and feed solutions for on-farm emission reduction. With today’s ambitious commitments we are taking a next step by making our societal impact explicit and measurable. We look forward to stepping this up, together with our public and private sector partners, to ensure accessible, affordable, healthy nutrition and healthy livelihoods within our planet’s boundaries.”

During 2020, the number of people without access to adequate nutrition rose to 2.4 billion — roughly a third of the world’s population (UN FAO). Food poverty is also endemic in many of the world’s richest countries, as shown by the growing use of food banks. It is estimated that 2 billion people suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiency with Covid-19 highlighting the crucial role a balanced nutrition plays in supporting the body’s immune function, said the company.

Here the company said it commits to helping fill the micronutrient gap of 800 million people by 2030 through fortified staple foods and health supplements that deliver a proven and cost-effective method of combating malnutrition; as well as empowering consumers to achieve healthier diets. It is doing this  this together with its cross-sector partners such as the World Food Programme, UNICEF, World Vision and Scaling Up Nutrition.