The Steenvoorde site has produced Danone products for the last 110 years and currently focuses on producing Danone’s specialised nutrition ranges for early life, including Gallia and Blédina brands.
The investment into the new medical nutrition line will see the site producing up to 20m litres of oral nutritional supplements annually from 2026, with €60m dedicated to recipe production for its Nutricia range.
In preparation for the new line, the 430 Steenvoorde employees will take part in reskilling and upskilling programmes.
The investment comes as the rate of chronic disease increases. Alongside an ageing population, disease related malnutrition is a prevalent issue, affecting one in four patients admitted to hospital, according to the Medical Nutrition Industry.
However, research shows that just one in three who need medical nutrition receive it.1
“Nutritional needs change as people grow, age and face health challenges, and at Danone, we believe that we have a responsibility to help generations live as healthily as possible,” said Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Danone. “We are continually innovating, investing and utilising our 125 years of expertise to develop products that are adapted to the growing nutritional needs of millions of patients around the world.
“This investment is also in line with our Renew Danone strategy and shows our commitment to accelerating our adult medical nutrition product offering to meet healthcare demands and serve more patients.”
Danone has been undertaking research and innovating in this area for 125 years. This latest investment into medical nutrition follows several others, including the company’s new production lines for its Lüleburgaz in Turkey and the Opole site in Poland in 2023. And more recently, the acquisition of US-based Functional Formularies to boost Danone’s medical nutrition portfolio and expand its food-based tube feeding ranges.
Whilst the majority of this latest €70m investment will be focused on medical nutrition, €10m will be used to install a biomass boiler.
The business claims the boiler will lower the French facility’s carbon footprint by almost 70%, in line with its Impact Journey commitments and enabled by its Re-Fuel energy excellence programme.
In other news, a new technology to kill harmful bacteria is being trialled by Birmingham-based researchers in an effort to combat common foodborne-related illnesses.
