Research on human subjects

Sound scientific proof from nutrition intervention studies

At the Unilever Food and Health Research Institute, we firmly believe that sound scientific proof from nutrition intervention studies in human subjects is the only basis for the verification of the efficacy of food with specific health benefits. 

Initial focus on essential fatty acids

When nutrition research started in Unilever in the early 40s, focus was on identifying suitable plant-based fats for margarine production and showing that these fats were as easily digested as butter fats. Later research focused on the essential fatty acid ‘linoleic acid’ and, more in particular, on its cholesterol-lowering benefits. Nutrition intervention studies in human subjects played a crucial role in convincing scientists as well as consumers that, with respect to their health impact, margarine is clearly preferred over butter.

Since then, our interest has broadened and our nutrition intervention trials nowadays focus on topics such as satiety, bioavailability, immune health, vascular function, blood pressure, lipid metabolism and antioxidants.

Recruiting human subjects

In the early days of our nutrition intervention studies it was not uncommon to do these studies in a closed institute, such as a convent, or, later, to work with volunteers from our own Unilever R&D Vlaardingen (Netherlands) site.  Although this was an acceptable way of working in those days, from the early 90s onwards the newly formed medical ethical committees for performing Research on human subjects forbade the use of employees in nutrition intervention studies. They felt that the employees might feel obliged to take part rather than being true volunteers.  For this reason, we started in the 90s to build up a panel of volunteers, not working on our Unilever R&D Vlaardingen site, that regularly participated in our increasing number of nutrition intervention studies. Nowadays, getting the required volunteers for our studies is a major challenge, not just because larger number of volunteers are needed but also because often these volunteers need to be selected on the basis of a particular health status.

International co-operation

Currently, about one-third of our nutrition intervention studies are performed in our Unilever Food and Health Research Institute in Vlaardingen, The Netherlands. The rest we perform in close co-operation with highly reputable institutes in the world. One recent example is a study in Indonesia together with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), an organisation based in Australia.