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.
Food
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 9 '18 08:00
A new Amsterdam-based platform and app aims to connect people across the Netherlands face-to-face through meal sharing. Through Meals Unite you can host a dinner for people in your neighborhood, or be a guest at someone else's dinner anywhere in the Netherlands, simply by signing up for it.
Dec 8 '18 08:00
Looking for a unique Christmas gift this year? Why not spoil a loved one with a delicious, chocolatey treat from The Traveling Frenchman.
The Amsterdam based company sells single-origin chocolate and hot chocolate flakes. This means the chocolate is made using cocoa beans from one specific place of origin. The beans take on the characteristics of the region where it is grown, and can take on floral, herbal, earthy or berry tones depending on region.
Nov 30 '18 12:30
Tony's Chocolonely is opening its own chocolate factory in former flour mill Pakhuis de Vrede in Zaandam. "There will also be a roller coaster", CEO Henk Jan Beltman said to RTL Nieuws.
Over the past 12 years Tony's Chocolonely has grown to become one of the most popular chocolate brands in the Netherlands. The company only uses responsibly sourced cocoa, for which farmers in Africa received acceptable payment and no children were used during harvest, according to the broadcaster. Its chocolate bars are currently made in factories in Belgium.
Oct 31 '18 08:35
Minister Carola Schouten of Agriculture wants to use a "light form" of genetic modification as part of her efforts to make agriculture in the Netherlands more sustainable. She is currently working with companies, farmers and Wageningen University to investigate the possibilities for experimenting with the so-called CRISPR-Cas method. She will send parliament a letter about their progress in the coming weeks, she said to the Volkskrant.
Oct 30 '18 11:00
Inter Scaldes in Kruiningen was named the best restaurant in the Netherlands by restaurant guide Lekker. The Zeeland restaurant came in second place last year, RTL Nieuws reports.
Last year's first place, Jonnie Boer's De Librije, came in second place this year. De Leest in Vaassen came in third.
Sep 25 '18 12:30
A decreasing number of Dutch consume alcohol, but those who do are drinking more and more, according to figures from the World Health Organization. According the the Dutch institution for alcohol policy STAP, the increase in alcohol consumption is especially significant among Dutch men, RTL Nieuws reports.
Aug 29 '18 13:40
Jumbo supermarkets will stop selling live lobsters, after years of protest by animal rights activists. A large Jumbo branch in Utrecht will get no tank for live lobsters, and branches in Amsterdam, Breda and Veghel will stop selling them, RTL Nieuws reports.
Aug 27 '18 14:00
The police confiscated 50 kilograms of chocolate from a foreign car on the A2 highway near Geleen on Saturday. The three people in the car were arrested, the police said on Twitter.
The chocolate was packed into cooler-bags. The three people in the car could not give the police a believable explanation of where the chocolate came from or where they were going with it.
Aug 3 '18 12:10
Vegetable giant Greenco is giving away some 6 million cherry tomatoes for free. Due to the hot weather, the tomatoes saw too much sun, causing their skin to become wrinkled. They can therefore no longer be sold because their quality is too low for supermarkets.
Jul 18 '18 14:00
Dutch startup Mosa Meat, that makes meat in a laboratory, received a 7.5 million euros investment from Swiss meat processing company Bell Food Group and M Ventures, the investment branch of German pharmaceutical Merck, a spokesperson for Mosa Meat confirmed to NU.nl.
Jul 13 '18 14:20
Frozen vegetables that may be contaminated by the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes are in circulation in the Netherlands, Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA warns The contaminated vegetables already led to several deaths elsewhere in Europe, RTL Nieuws reports.
This involves frozen vegetables from producer Greenyard's factory in Hungary. According to the NVWA, companies who sell these products must remove them from the shelves and send out warnings if they have already been sold.
Jul 12 '18 10:50
Amsterdam's food walls will soon offer an alternative for people who want to make healthier choices with their meals. In August croquette king Febo will be joined by a Health Food Wall, which is opening on Kinkerstraat. The Health Food Wall will serve healthy vegetarian, or even vegan, meals as well as some gluten-free options, Het Parool reports.
Jul 6 '18 11:50
A video surfaced showing serious abuses at duck breeding companies in the Netherlands, specifically when the animals are being caught and transported. Animal rights organizations are horrified, RTL Nieuws, who published the video, reports.
The video, made by Animal Rights last winter, shows a young duck being stomped to death, ducks being brutally crammed into crates, and being grabbed by their wings and legs. It also shows two employees throwing a young duck between each other in what seems to be a game.
Jul 6 '18 09:07
Some 19 thousand Dutch teenagers drink too many energy drinks and therefore run health risks, public health institute RIVM concluded after a study. State Secretary Paul Blokhuis of Public Health is talking with various organizations about measures, NOS reports.
According to the RIVM, the consumption of energy drinks among teenagers declined over the past years. But about 1 to 2 percent of teens between the ages of 13 and 18 years drink three cans or more per day. They therefore run an increased risk of cardiac arrhythmia and their central nervous system being affected.
Jul 3 '18 16:10
Aldi and Lidl are going to stop selling energy drinks to young children. From October 1st, kids under the age of 14 will not be able to buy energy drinks from Aldi stores, AD reports.
Aldi was the first supermarket in the Netherlands to announce this measure. The supermarket will ask for proof of identity to check the age when a child tries to buy an energy drink. Aldi will also inform customers about the health risks involved in consuming such drinks.
Jun 25 '18 15:10
Both the Dutch egg sector and the government did not give food safety high enough priority when it came to the fipronil contaminated egg scandal of last year, a committee headed by former Minister Winnie Sorgdrager concluded after investigating the crisis. The previous government also did not properly inform parliament about what was going on, the committee found, ANP reports.
Jun 20 '18 09:18
Dutch slaughterhouses do not always care about animal welfare. Pigs drowning in piping hot water and calves being skinned alive are among the cruelties inspectors found, RTL Nieuws reports based on documents requested from the Dutch food and consumer product safety authority NVWA.
Jun 15 '18 16:10
McDonald's in the Netherlands plans to get rid of all plastic straws with their drinks from next year. What they will be replaced with, is still being decided, RTL Nieuws reports.
The Dutch branch of McDonald's is currently looking at how tests go in other countries before deciding on what alternative to go for. "You can think of straws made of paper or no straw at all", a spokesperson said to the broadcaster. "Think of a tute like with coffee cups."
The company plans to choose its alternative by the end of the year.
Jun 13 '18 13:40
The first barrel of new herring was sold for 78 thousand euros at the Scheveningen fish auction on Tuesday. True to tradition, the proceeds will be donated to a good cause, ANP reports.
Jun 12 '18 09:28
German supermarkets removed tens of thousands of Dutch eggs from themselves because they were found to be contaminated by toxic insecticide fipronil. The German Ministry of Agriculture says that there is no danger to public health, NOS reports.
It involved around 73 thousand eggs from an organic chicken farmer in the Netherlands. They were delivered between May 17th and June 4th and were sold in six states all over Germany. Some of the eggs were already sold to consumers before the contamination was discovered.
Jun 1 '18 10:40
Newspaper AD is stopping its annual taste tests. This year there will be no oliebollen, herring or friet taste tests, the newspaper announced on Friday, just before the start of the herring season.
