Danone has officially opened its €240 million Nutricia Cuijk production facility in the Netherlands to meet demand for infant formula.
The plant, among the company’s largest investments in its European production network in a decade, is the culmination of a three-year journey.
It will primarily produce specialised infant formula that meets the needs of infants diagnosed with specific medical conditions – such as cow’s milk protein allergy – as well as standard infant formula.
“At this facility, we’ll be producing food for vulnerable babies; and we’re also doing everything we can to preserve a healthy and clean environment for future generations,” said Veronique Penchienati-Bosetta, Executive Vice President, Danone Specialised Nutrition.
The new facility will replace an older existing plant in Cuijk, which the company will gradually phase out.
The newly-built Nutricia Cuijk facility uses advanced environmental technologies coupled with efficiently-designed manufacturing processes to ensure water and energy consumption as well as CO2 emissions are kept to a minimum.
Once at full capacity, it will have double the production capacity of the legacy plant but will use 60% less water, 25% less energy and emit 50% less CO2 than the legacy plant.
To further minimize the new facility’s carbon footprint, Nutricia Cuijk is powered by 100% renewable electricity.
Nutricia Cuijk sources dairy ingredients exclusively from western Europe – the world’s region with the lowest dairy farming CO2 emission rates.
Of these ingredients, a significant majority are sourced locally, from the Netherlands and neighboring Germany. Nutricia Cuijk also embraces the principles of the circular economy – 100% of the facility’s waste is recovered, including all packaging waste.
