The key to accessible nutrition

The first  Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute (KHNI) event in Singapore was led by CEO Edmond Scanlon; KHNI’s Dr Aoife Marie Murphy; and Simon Hague, General Manager of Foodservice Chains, Kerry Southeast. Joining the Kerry team were leading experts Dr Kalpana Bhaskaran, Advisor for Diabetes Singapore and President of the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association; Angelia Teo, futurist and innovation strategist; and Oliver Truesdale-Jutras, Chair of Singapore’s F&B Sustainability Council and Chef/Founder of Re:Growth, a regenerative hospitality consultancy.

Amid the effects of climate crisis, diminishing resources, and rising costs, the task of making food and nutrition accessible to all remains a pressing matter.  And yes, the 2030 UN Sustainability goal draws nearer.

Achieving accessible nutrition rests on five key pillars, namely convenience, nutrition, sustainability, affordability and taste, according to Edmond Scanlon, CEO at Kerry Group.

In terms of packaged food, Scanlon said that ease of use is a major factor given consumers’ hectic on-the-go lifestyle. So is the nutritional quality of the food equally important. “Consumers put a lot of value to their time but want to feel better about the food they consume. There is significant room, for instance, to reduce the amount of sugar and salt in packaged food products. We bring these into the equation in terms of the types of products we create,” said Scanlon during the Future of Sustainable Nutrition event held in Singapore recently to mark the 10^th anniversary of Kerry Health and Nutrition Institute (KHNI). Drawing upon the KHNI’s Ten Key Health and Nutrition Trends for 2025 report, the panel discussed four key themes, one of which is sustainable, accessible nutrition.

Scanlon underscores the need to make products more sustainable yet affordable. He said that the latter takes into consideration the rising cost of staples such as cocoa (prices of which have jumped by 300 percent), and how this impacts final product costs.

Taste is an equally vital pillar in achieving accessible nutrition for all, with failure in this area undermining success in all the other four. “There has to be a balance amongst convenience, nutrition, sustainability, affordability and taste. So, progress in combining all these factors as opposed to zeroing on perfection is key to making nutrition accessible. Finally, if a product is not hitting or does not have the capability to hit a mass market, then it is not accessible nutrition,” Scanlon said.

Innovation along the different parts and stages of the supply chain is thus imperative, said Kerry Global Sustainable Nutrition Senior Manager Aoife Marie Murphy, PhD. The climate crisis and resulting rising prices of food, for example, highlights the need for innovations in regenerative agriculture. Innovations in product development explore replacers for increasingly pricey ingredients such as cocoa that guarantee the same taste and other sensory qualities. Toward the end of the supply chain, innovations should also be carried out in managing and reducing food waste.

“One third of food is wasted, and this goes completely against accessible and affordable nutrition. Innovations around accessible nutrition include making sure that the food we produce and have available is eaten and the nutrients are nourishing the population. So innovations across the supply chain are ongoing, and it’s really an exciting time,” Murphy added. 

Dr. Kalpana Bhaskaran, advisor for Diabetes Singapore and president of the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association, noted 3As -- affordability, accessibility and adequacy -- as fundamental in addressing accessible nutrition and the rising incidence of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes. With affordability being influenced by socioeconomic conditions, consumer education is crucial, as is working with local authorities on pricing issues. For sustained nutrition to be achieved, availability of food should be guaranteed so consumers can have access to what they need anytime.

“Adequacy includes nutrition adequacy. Those with noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes will cut down on rice. But when one reduces carb intake, he or she is also removing certain micronutrients, which leads to nutrition adequacy. The same is true amongst the aging population when they start reducing food intake,” Bhaskaran said.

Food diversity remains a major challenge, admitted Oliver Truesdale-Jutras, chair of Singapore’s F&B Sustainability Council and chef/founder of regenerative hospitality consultancy Re:Growth. With 75 percent of food consumed coming from just 12 plants and five animals, and amongst the plants 65 percent coming from only five plants, nutrition is not the only issue. Truesdale-Jutras said that from an environmental standpoint, a single disease can wipe out a huge chunk of the food supply.

“There's a real opportunity for food diversity in Southeast Asia, where there are still super biodiverse areas,” said Truesdale-Jutras. The region’s biodiversity presents opportunities to explore different sources to develop and introduce new products that are highly nutritious as well as serve to replace other staples that are higher in cost.

In Southeast Asia, affordability and sustainability are so closely linked, with regulation requirements for the latter pushing prices up, said Angelia Teo, futurist and innovation strategist. “Building up accessibility involves a complex system, including proximity of source, which covers physical and mental proximity. There’s an economic price, but there’s also the environmental price,” she shared.

Teo projects a future where people regardless of economic range will be eating closer to home, with accessibility to and diversity of foods influenced by what is available from the land. The physical proximity will entail greater consciousness about food choices not just in terms of nutrition but also about carbon credits in line with growing concern about sustainability. Teo sees the role of internet and social media in possibly reducing prices in that they allow businesses to remove the middleman, shorten the supply chain and reach consumers directly.

So how do all these factors surrounding accessible nutrition influence players in the industry? Scanlon said: “How we try to approach it is, think about how we can enable our customer base to reach a mass set of consumers with products that have the right level of balance across the five areas of convenience, nutrition, sustainability, affordability and taste. A lot more needs to be done but we should not stop making progress in this area.”