The Netherlands has too little insight into food safety hazards and food and consumer safety authority NVWA is not equipped to identify and prevent new health risks, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in an investigation launched following the fipronil crisis in the summer of 2017. The Safety Board calls for a more structured approach to food safety to prevent public health hazards, NOS reports.
Food
Jun 17 '19 13:20
Over the past decade, food prices in the Netherlands increased by 14.5 percent, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday based on a new analysis of the consumer price index. In May food was 3.8 percent more expensive than in the same month last year, "almost the largest price increase in 10 years", the stats office said.
Jun 11 '19 12:20
Hospitality businesses like restaurants and cafes are increasingly prevalent on Dutch shopping streets, as more and more retailers are disappearing from the landscape due to financial problems. The latest business struggling to cope in the Dutch retail scene is Canadian department store chain Hudson's Bay. Only two years after entering the Dutch market, the parent company is looking to cut back, which may include closing stores.
Jun 10 '19 14:20
Three Amsterdam cafes made it onto top 50 rankings for their food. nNea Pizza serves the 13th best pizza in Europe, outside Italy, according to 50 Top Pizza. And the 9th and 40th best sandwiches in Europe can be found at Toastable and Metropolitain, according to Big 7 Travel's ranking.
Jun 7 '19 17:50
An investigation into the use of sustainable fish at high-end restaurants in the Netherlands determined that most served at least one fish item that could have long-lasting negative impact on the ecosystem. The study, carried out by non-profit organization Good Fish Foundation (GFF), found that 89 percent of restaurants use a fish species that is red-flagged on the organization’s sustainability index VISwijzer.
May 21 '19 16:30
Supermarket chain Albert Heijn plans to step up its fight against food waste with a new system called "dynamic discounts". This involves an electronic price tag that gives customers a bigger and bigger discount the closer a product comes to its sell-by date, NOS reports.
Over the past year, Albert Heijn threw away 1 percent of unsold products because they exceeded their expiry date. That amounts to 63 million kilograms of wasted food. The supermarket chain hopes that the dynamic discounts system can help reduce this.
May 17 '19 11:10
King Willem-Alexander joined an Iftar in the multicultural Transvaal district in The Hague on Thursday night - to the great surprise of the other attendees. Iftar is the evening meal with which Muslims break their daily fast at sunset during Ramadan.
May 7 '19 10:20
Hundreds of products are incorrectly sold as "organic" in Dutch stores. This involves products from over 200 farmers who do not comply with the organic rules on animal welfare, medicine use and the environment, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own study of more than 1,500 inspection reports from regulator Skal.
Apr 30 '19 11:50
Good news for Dutch meat lovers who also want to make a more environmentally-friendly choice with their meals. The plant-based Beyond Burger is now available at over 700 Albert Heijn stores in the Netherlands.
Apr 22 '19 15:10
Supermarket chain Lidl recalled the liter packs of semi-skimmed vanilla yogurt of the Milbona brand. The product may contain metal particles, which can lead to injuries, the supermarket said, the Telegraaf reports.
Lidl removed the product from its shelves and call on customers not to consume the yogurt, but bring it back for a refund. This only concerns the Milbona ’Halfvolle vanille yoghurt’, 1 liter, with the EAN code 20329358, and best-before date 29 April.
Apr 10 '19 17:10
In the coming years Hema will be fully committed to sustainability. Part of that is creating vegan variants for all its most popular products, including the company's iconic smoked sausage, or rookworst as it is known in the Netherlands.
All of Hema's food products will eventually be given a vegan version, CEO Tjeerd Jegen said to Het Parool. The company already offers a vegetarian sausage roll and vegan apple pie. Pastry tompouce is a bit more complicated, but will also be looked at eventually, he said.
Apr 9 '19 16:00
The Netherlands first real Banana Bar will be open for one day only in Amsterdam on April 17th, National Banana Day. To be clear: at this pop-up Banana Bar you can exchange leftover or over-ripe bananas for banana bread.
The Banana Bar pop-up is the initiative of Amsterdam banana bread startup SUNT. The company hopes that the initiative will draw attention to food waste. Bananas are on top of the list of the world's most thrown away product. Every year around 75 billion, perfectly edible, bananas are thrown away, according to Marie Claire.
Apr 9 '19 11:50
Consumers association Consumentenbond wants the Dutch government to introduce the Nutriscore label on Dutch products. Nutriscore is a color-coded label that shows at a glance how healthy or unhealthy a product is, with ratings from A (healthy) to E (unhealthy).
Apr 9 '19 10:10
In 2017 a total of 456 restaurants were placed under extra supervision by the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA because they were not adhering to the rules on hygiene and food safety. That's over 120 more than in 2014, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own research into NVWA inspection reports.
Mar 27 '19 15:00
The municipality of Rotterdam is working on a Rotterdam Prevention Agreement to encourage Rotterdam residents to live healthier lives. Part of that is discouraging unhealthy diets by countering the opening of more fast food chains, and promoting a more responsible and healthier product range in supermarkets, the office of mayor and aldermen said in response to questions by Leefbaar Rotterdam city councilor Michel van Elck, the Telegraaf reports.
Mar 25 '19 12:00
Organic products in the Netherlands are becoming more affordable, according to a price comparison by consumers' association Consumentenbond. Five years ago organic products were on average twice as expensive as regular ones. Now buying organic is 63 percent more expensive, AD reports.
The association compared 115 products from 13 regular supermarkets and four organic stores.
Feb 21 '19 13:40
Two Amsterdam restaurants made it into the Europe's Top 50 Burgers ranking by global travel site Big 7 Travel. Not only did Burger Bar and The Beef Chief's burgers get into the top 50, but they made it into the top 10.
Burger Bar serves the 8th best burger in Europe. The company has three locations in Amsterdam and is easily one of Amsterdam's most popular burger joints, according to the site. "Perfect after a few beers", the site says about the burgers.
Feb 7 '19 16:00
Thousands of kids and teenagers in the Netherlands skipped school on Thursday to protest in The Hague for more action to be taken against climate change. They carried banners and signs with slogans like "If the climate were a bank, it would already have been saved". The protest happened peacefully and without incident, NU.nl reports.
Feb 5 '19 08:33
Food waste is still a massive problem in the Netherlands. About a third of the total produced food ends up in the trash can. Consumers are the biggest culprit, accounting for 42 percent of the waste. Each consumer throws away 41 kilograms of food per year. Bread is the most wasted product in the Netherlands. Every day 800 thousand loaves find their way into the trash, Nieuwsuur reports.
Feb 4 '19 17:10
McDonald's world-famous Chicken McNuggets will be unavailable at many of the fast food chain's Dutch branches in the coming days. Due to an error in the production process, many McDonald's in the Netherlands are running out of stock, NOS reports.
Jan 14 '19 15:50
Butchery Van Hattem from Dodewaard and its director will be prosecuted for their role in a horse meat scandal of five years ago. They are suspected of forgery because they sold meat as "horse-free" while it wasn't, and as halal while it wasn't. The butchery is accused of incorporating horse meat into its products and selling it as beef, making 250 thousand euros in illegal profit, Omroep Gelderland reports.
Jan 10 '19 13:45
Supermarket chain Albert Heijn will start offering hot meal delivery from Friday - the first Dutch supermarket to do so. Initially Albert Heijn will only deliver freshly made meals in a certain area in Amsterdam. Deliveries will be handled by Thuisbezorgd.nl and Deliveroo, NU.nl reports.
"We see an increasing demand among our customers for good meals, like you would make yourself, without having to go into the kitchen", said Marit van Egmond, Albert Heijn's director of commerce. The company described this as the next step in food service.
Jan 7 '19 07:49
Hundreds of Dutch Protestant pastors, prominent people in the church, as well as the party leader and a senator of Christian party SGP, signed a manifesto against LGBTQ people. The manifesto argues that marriage is meant to only be a covenant between one man and one woman, and that good Christians should always reject homosexuality. It also suggests that your sexual identity is something you can be healed of.
Dec 17 '18 14:18
Twelve Dutch restaurants were awarded their first Michelin stars at the presentation in Amsterdam on Monday. Two others were awarded a second star. Inter Scaldes in Kruiningen, De Leest in Vaassen and De Librije in Zwolle all kept the three stars they already had, according to Misset Horeca.
Restaurants Sabero in Roermond and Pure C in Catzand were each awarded two stars..
The following restaurants were awarded their first Michelin star:
