Team of senior consultants
he consultants in NCC are all independent consultants with years’ experience in the food industry, government or academic world. Together they span a wide array of disciplines all related to nutrition or food development, like scientific reviews, health claim applications (eg. EFSA), science brokering, design and monitoring of intervention studies, policy and strategy development, food innovation and application, food legislation, communication.
Experienced multi-disciplinary research team
Due to the wide scope of disciplines and the long experience of most members in food industry, the team can cover the whole innovation process as applied in the modern food industry, from fundamental research till product or concept communication.
Moreover, the members have extensive work experience in nutritional knowledge areas, spanning the whole nutritional spectrum: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, micronutrients, fibres, alcohol. Specific other expertise areas include: bread and bakery, dairy, pre- and probiotics, international nutrition including infant and child nutrition, life cycle nutrition and immunology related nutrition.
Build up over the years of careers of the individual members, NCC has an extensive science network in EU and worldwide. And considerable experience in multi-stakeholder cross country projects (e.g. EU projects). The working performance of the NCC consultants is characterised by commitment and involvement. All are driven by a passion for nutrition.
Our consultants
Any member of NCC can be approached for potential projects or advice.
Sandra Einerhand
I am a specialist in nutrition and health providing tailored nutrition solutions to food (ingredient) and beverage companies. As former R&D Director in the food industry (Danone Nutricia, Tate & Lyle and Lipid Nutrition) and as Associate Professor in academia, Sandra offers my clients science-based strategic advice and services going from new product ideas to product commercialization and go-to-market communication.
She specifically focusses on food ingredients like Sweeteners, Prebiotics, Probiotics, Lipids and Dairy ingredients and on Infant and Medical/Senior nutrition and health. I can also link my clients to the best scientific or medical experts in the world to get their advice or to conduct nutritional intervention studies in humans or in preclinical models. Besides being a partner of the Nutrition Consultants Cooperative (NCC), I am also the founder of Einerhand Science & Innovation BV, a consultancy providing nutritional solutions to infant formula, medical foods and other food (ingredient) companies.
Before I worked for Danone Nutricia , Tate & Lyle Ingredients (and Lipid Nutrition as Scientific Program Director and Nutrition & Health Director leading large scientific programs to bring infant formulas, (medical) food products and new food ingredients to the market with scientifically proven health benefits yielding several patents.
During the first part of my career I worked as assistant (AMC, Amsterdam) and associate professor (ErasmusMC, Rotterdam) specialized in prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases in children and published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and secured fundraising from national and international organizations. I studied Chemistry in Amsterdam and have a PhD in Biomedicine.
Henk Hendriks
Henk studied Biology in Utrecht and received his PhD on ‘Vitamin A metabolism’ from the Leiden University in the Netherlands. He started working at the Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in 1986 and has worked at various institutes in TNO until February 2014. I was part-time project leader at the Top Institute for Food and Nutrition in the Netherlands focusing on ‘Gut nutrient sensing’. Currently, I am an independent consultant for various food companies and research institutes.
I am an enthusiastic, motivated project initiator/manager focusing on the scientific basis for the health aspects of nutrition. He is experienced in developing, acquiring and managing multidisciplinary research projects/programmes in nutrition at the interface of science and application collaborating with national government and international industry. I have the ambition to contribute to a better understanding of and a better scientific substantiation of health effects of nutrition by developing new concepts and applying new technologies.
My special fields of interest are: biomedical aspects of moderate alcohol consumption in man, weight management, nutrigenomics, nutrition and coronary heart disease risk factors, functional food claim support and novel food safety evaluation. I have published over 125 peer-reviewed papers.
Toine Hulshof

I studied Human Nutrition at the Wageningen University, where I also successfully defended my PhD thesis on the effect of different foods on hunger and satiety and energy intake.
For more than 24 years I have worked in different leadership roles at Kellogg Company: Nutrition science, nutrition communication, marketing, consumer affairs, regulatory affairs, and lobby at EU commission level. I have been the chairperson of different ILSI Europe Task Forces as well as chair for more than 10 years of the ‘Expert Group Nutrition’ of the Dutch Food Industry Federation (FNLI).
Currently I am an independent consultant with passion for many aspects in food and health. You can ask for my support for projects where you need an experienced team- or project manager, or if you need a nutrition expert chairperson for your meeting or symposium. Next to this, I help individuals, organizations and companies with building their future business strategy, at all levels.
Marieke Lugt

I hold a PhD in Food Law, and have, amongst others, worked for the Dutch Association of Manufacturers of Infant and Dietetic Foodstuffs and Dutch Association for Biscuits, Chocolate and Confectionary. And she has worked as Regulatory Affairs Manager for FrieslandCampina for 16 years before starting ‘Lugt Food Law’ in 2018.
I am the owner of ‘Lugt Food Law’, a consultancy specialized in Dutch and European Food Law and have more than 30 years of experience in the field of food law with the food industry, trade associations, consultancy and university.
Lugt Food Law provides the following services, clear and quick replies to questions about food law, interim solution for positions on Regulatory Affairs/Food Law, partner to discuss complicated food law issues and label checks.
Lugt Food Law has a wide variety of clients, for instance, producers of infant formula (including compliance with Chinese GB Standards) and foods for special medical purposes, mushroom products, spirits, flavours and colours, chocolate, tea, food supplements etc.
With Lugt Food Law I am co-author of the Manuals of the Dutch Food Authority on the following subjects: Labelling of Foodstuffs; Legislation for Foods for Specific Groups; Novel Foods; Nutrition and Health Claims; and Food Supplements, fortified foodstuffs and Herbal Preparations.
Loek Pijls
Do you have questions around:
- How does what we eat impact our health (entails e.g. designing and understanding nutrition research and its outcomes)?
- How to apply those insights – how to make them land on our plates, e.g. via reformulation, claims, medical foods and other communications – in the best possible way, whilst respecting existing degrees of regulatory freedom?
With insights, expertise and other inputs from Loekintofood (www.loekintofood.com) you will be able to advance such matters.
Clients so far include multinationals and smaller food & ingredient companies, as well as government- and related organisations: Cosucra, Nestlé Health Science, Royal FrieslandCampina, Netherlands Health Council, Hearing Health Science, Hylobates, KarmaKarma, Newtricious, Quisper.
Most recently I was The Coca-Cola Company’s Global Director for Nutrition Innovation. For Nestlé Health Science I was Regulatory Affairs Manager for Benelux, as well Corporate. At Nestlé Research Center he led a Group that guided, for Nestlé worldwide, the substantiation of health claims. For the International Life Science Institute – European Branch I was Senior Scientist, and Director of the EC-funded EURRECA Network of Excellence.
Before that I worked in The Netherlands at the Health Council, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, National Institute for Public Health and Wageningen University. In different parts of Ethiopia I worked for the Ethiopian Nutrition Institute.
My MSc is from Wageningen University and PhD from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I am also certified at PhD level in Nutritional Sciences and Epidemiology, and as Project Management Professional (PMP®)
Hans Verhagen

From 1990 to 2000 I worked at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute. From 2000 to 2005 I worked for Unilever. In May 2005 I joined the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. I led the Centre for Nutrition and Health from 2005 to 2012, then served as senior scientific adviser for nutrition and food safety from 2013 to 2015. I was editor-in-chief of Food & Chemical Toxicology and chief editor of the European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety. I worked at the European Food Safety Authority in Italy from 2015 to 2018 as head of the Risk Assessment and Scientific Assistance Department, and from 2018 to 2020 as senior scientific officer.
I have been a board-certified toxicologist since 1990 and a board-certified nutritionist since 2005. I served on the EFSA NDA panel from 2006 to 2015. I have been a visiting professor at the University of Ulster since 2009, and since January 2021 I am also an adjunct professor at the Technical University of Denmark.
Jan de Vries
With more than 16 years of experience in the Research & Development of the food industry, respectively in the Dairy Industry (Friesland Coberco from 1994-2006) and the Bakery Ingredient Supplies Industry (CSM from 2006-2010), I am a partner who is able to help you in the application of Nutrition Sciences in food innovation. Before starting to work for the food industry I contributed to several advices from the Dutch Food and Nutrition Council in the Netherlands. With my background in Biology, Human Nutrition and Pharmacology I am able to understand a wide variety of scientific domains that touch upon nutrition and health.
During my industrial employment, I actively participated in many Task Forces of ILSI-Europe, represented my employers in the Top Institute Food and Nutrition in the Netherlands and represented CSM in the industrial platform of the European Healthgrain Project.
In September 2010 I started my consultancy. Additional to critical appraisal of the scientific literature I can support projects in food innovation and can design and facilitate workshops intended to set up effective innovation projects. Since early 2017 I am a member of the NCC in the Netherlands.
Koen Venema
Koen: “I am an curiosity-driven enthusiastic project initiator/manager focusing on the role of the gut microbiota in health and disease. Our diet/nutrition is very important in modulating the gut microbiota. I am experienced in developing and managing multidisciplinary research projects in nutrition and functional foods focused on gut microbiology. I have the ambition to contribute to a better global health through modulating the microbiota using (functional) food(s) by developing new concepts and applying new technologies.
My special fields of interest are: in vitro models of the GI tract, probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, gut microbiota, gut health and the gut-microbiota-brain-axis. I have published over 200 peer-reviewed papers.”












