The nutritional value, taste and texture of food products such as meat, fish, dairy products and eggs are directly influenced by the nutrition of the animal concerned. As Nutreco is a major animal nutrition and fish feed company, we play an important role in the value chains that supply consumers with safe and nutritious food.

We have a unique feed-to-food quality strategy we call Nutrace®, with standards and protocols that can be applied across all Nutreco businesses. The established standards are Certified Quality, Monitoring, Risk Management and Tracking & Tracing. As Nutrace is a dynamic strategy, we continually improve and strengthen it. In 2008 a fifth standard, Ingredient Assessment and Management, was developed.

The development of Nutrace is guided by the Nutrace Platform, which includes quality and food safety specialists from all Nutreco businesses. This is a forum for discussion and helps companies share their knowledge and best practices and the work of safeguarding the quality of our products.

Several examples of progress in 2008 are described in the CSR Report. They include the implementation of Nutrace in Nutreco Canada, which became part of Nutreco in the second half of 2007. Also in 2008, Nutreco's animal feed business in Spain, Nanta, achieved certification for all its plants under the new ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System. ISO 22000 is far stricter than previous quality standards.