We encourage healthier eating and drinking practices
We partner with experts to support community programmes that advocate for healthy diets and lifestyles, so that our impact can be greater than just acting through our products.
Helping to tackle diet-related diseases and drive healthier, more sustainable eating and drinking habits across the UK will continue to be essential to our mission.
We support social enterprises, charities and expert partners in their work in the community to promote healthy, sustainable diets. Partnering with patient groups and charities, we also support patients with lifelong health conditions and engage with local government to shape the public health policy agenda.
OUR WORK WITH FOODCYCLE
Our partnership work with national charity FoodCycle sees us working together to help promote healthy attitudes to food, while enabling access to nutritious meals for FoodCycle’s guests.
We began our partnership in 2023 and have been working together to help upskill FoodCycle’s volunteers and guests on the importance of healthy nutrition. Drawing on the expertise of Danone’s dietitians and nutritionists, together we have developed new training materials to help support volunteers, and helpful resources for guests on how to follow a healthy, nutritious diet at home.
Alongside this important partnership work, our own Danoners are encouraged to volunteer throughout the year at their local FoodCycle projects.
RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT MALNUTRITION
What is malnutrition? Malnutrition is a serious condition that occurs when a person’s diet does not contain enough nutrients, or the right balance of nutrients, to meet the demands of their body*. This can affect growth, physical health, mood, behaviour and many of the functions of the body. Although there are varying issues that can contribute to it, most malnutrition is disease-related. It can affect a range of patients with both acute and chronic conditions, from rarer genetic conditions to more prevalent conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In the UK today, malnutrition is still going undetected and untreated. It is estimated that 3 million** people are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. This represents a major health issue for individual patients and has economic consequences for the NHS. The annual associated costs are an estimated £22.6 billion*** in England alone, yet only 2% of people admitted to hospital with disease related malnutrition are receiving a diagnosis.
Our recent research with Future Health also found that there are an extra 4.73 million additional GP appointments each month related to disease related malnutrition. This represents 17.7% of all appointments. Annually this equates to 56.8 million GP appointments. If left untreated, malnutrition can lead to prolonged hospital stays, disease complications and longer recovery times
As such, it’s critical that disease related malnutrition is taken seriously as a key health issue impacting people across the UK. Nutricia has world-leading expertise in preventing and managing disease-related malnutrition in clinical settings, backed by our significant research capabilities. To help tackle malnutrition in the UK, we want better access to screening for parients in all care settings. We also believe in providing medics, GPs, and pharmacists with more comprehensive and consistent information so that they can better identify malnutrition and implement appropriate care plans early.
*Elia, M (2003) The ‘MUST’ report. Nutritional screening for adults: a multidisciplinary responsibility. BAPEN
**Elia M, on behalf of the Malnutrition Action Group (BAPEN) and the National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre. The cost of malnutrition in England and potential cost savings from nutritional interventions (full report). 2015.
***Hiding-in-plain-sight-Web-FINAL.pdf (futurehealth-research.com)
Providing specialist support in community settings
Nutricia supports nearly 30,000* people (both adults and children across the UK) who are enterally tube fed at home, saving the NHS over £40 million through the service provided in our contract areas across hospitals and community settings. In 2023, Nutricia Homeward nurses carried out nearly 240,000 nursing interventions across the UK.
*Data on file 2024