The DTU National Food institute contributes through research and advisory services to promote health, prevent disease, and develop new, more sustainable foods.
Explore some of this year’s highlights below:
Three professors from the DTU National Food Institute have been named “Highly Cited Researcher 2025” by Clarivate: Tine Rask Licht, Frank Møller Aarestrup and Fredrik Bäckhed. This means that their research has had a marked impact on international scientific literature.
A new global online infrastructure aims to prevent disease outbreaks from developing into pandemics. DTU National Food Institute in Denmark, which has a long history of disease prevention and surveillance, will serve as the focal point for the new infrastructure. Work to build the platform will begin on 1 January 2026.
Today, the Nordic Council of Ministers a new joint Nordic monitoring survey of diet, physical activity, overweight and nicotine use in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. DTU National Food Institute has led the project and played a central role in the Danish contribution to the survey, which shows that people in the Nordic countries overall live less healthily today than we did ten years ago.
A team of researchers has discovered that latent antimicrobial resistance is more widespread across the world than known resistance. They call for broader surveillance of resistance in wastewater, as the problematic genes of the future may be hiding in the widespread reservoir of latent resistance genes.
Researchers from The Technical University of Denmark, DTU, and Aarhus University receive a double-digit million grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to utilise yeast, bacteria, or fungi for sustainable food production.
The microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica holds potential as a valuable source of sustainably produced nutrients such as protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin K2. A new study from DTU shows that cultivation conditions, particularly temperature and light, play a significant role in the yield.
New research from DTU National Food Institute has yielded promising results in the fight against campylobacter in free-range chicken flocks. Trials demonstrate that adding biochar to chicken feed can reduce campylobacter in chickens by up to 80%. This could potentially lead to fewer foodborne illnesses among humans.
Danish-produced fruit and vegetables contain fewer pesticide residues than imported ones, and in general, pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables on the Danish market pose a negligible health risk when consuming a varied diet. This is shown by the collection of monitoring data from 2018-2022 and a risk assessment of the total exposure in a new report from DTU National Food Institute.
New studies can help the industry create new products:
New research from DTU in Denmark could change the way the food industry manufactures dairy based yoghurt - making it both more cost-effective and more sustainable. Researchers have developed a simple yet powerful method that has the potential to reduce the use of expensive bacterial cultures by up to 80%, while also extending shelf life.
A new study maps how specific lactic acid bacteria can enhance both the flavour and nutritional quality of plant-based dairy alternatives. The findings may have wide-reaching perspectives for the further development of sustainable foods.
A group of researchers, including scientists from the DTU National Food Institute, have developed a method that, with the help of artificial intelligence and DNA decoding, can predict how well disease-causing bacteria such as Listeria tolerate disinfectants. This research may become a valuable weapon in the fight against harmful bacteria in the food industry
Happy New Year
