The Centre for Nutrition and Health supports public health in the Netherlands by providing the scientific evidence and basis for policy making on diet, nutrition and health.

Tasks
The Centre for Nutrition and Health: 

• Collects and analyses data on all aspects of food consumption, food composition and eating habits in the Netherlands; 

• Assesses dietary patterns against standards and guidelines; 

• Manages national databases on food composition (Dutch Food Composition Database)  and food supplements; 

• Conducts literature-based and epidemiological studies on the relationship between diet and nutrition on lifestyle and on chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer; 

• Quantifies the effects of diet and nutrition on health, advises on appropriate measures and studies the impact of such measures; 

• Investigates and advises on public health nutrition, nutrition and health claims, fortified food products, novel foods and potential interactions between food and medicines, risk-benefit analyses and makes recommendations on reformulation of food products.

Clients and partners
RIVM's activities in nutrition and health are largely funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, and by the European Union. The centre cooperates with various organisations in the Netherlands and in other countries, including Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Wageningen University and Research Centre, Utrecht University, Maastricht University, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Centre for Disease Control and Prevention China (CDC China) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 2008, RIVM has been a WHO Collaborative Centre for Nutrition.