SNF Swedish Nutrition Foundation was a non-profit association (originally Stiftelsen Svensk Näringsforskning) which was founded in 1961 at the initiative of the food industry, with the aim of promoting nutrition-related research and its practical application. Since its inception, SNF has contributed to the development, dissemination, and utilization of expertise on food and health.

Members of SNF were companies and organizations within the food industry.

During its first 30 years, SNF played a significant role in strengthening nutrition research in the country. Before departments with a focus on nutrition were established at the universities, the foundation contributed to building up nutrition research nationally.

SNF formed a bridge between nutrition research and other societal actors, active in the food-health area, not least the food industry. SNF offered a unique network of leading researchers in the field of nutrition, which enabled SNF to offer an activity with very high scientific quality and credibility. The activities were neutral in relation to both commercial interests and research orientations.

Throughout the years, the task of organizing meetings disseminating expertise on nutrition was an important task, ranging from large international congresses to national conferences, mini-symposia, seminars and courses.

In 1962 the foundation resumed responsibility for the journal Näringsforskning (Nutrition Research), which in 1992 changed its name to the Scandinavian Journal of Nutrition and in 2006 to the Scandinavian Journal of Food and Nutrition; a trade journal in the field of nutrition. In 2008, the journal was replaced by the popular science journal Nordisk Nutrition (Nordic Nutrition) and the scientific journal Food & Nutrition Research. A knowledge portal, nutritionsfakta.se, was started in 2016 with the aim of contributing to a fact-based societal debate around food and health, by summarizing the current state of knowledge in the field of nutrition and putting new findings into context.

From 1991, SNF was the coordinating and advisory body for the Food industry’s Code of practice on health claims in food labelling and marketing, the first of its kind in the world. With the entry into force of the EU Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims (1924/2006), the Code of practice ceased to apply. Instead, SNF was entrusted with the responsibility for industry support on nutrition and health claims, until 2014.

SNF produced the following unique reports (in Swedish) that summarized the current state of knowledge in various areas, with the aim of contributing to a fact-based debate around food and health:

• Sugar report 2006 and 2014
• Palm oil report 2014
• Additives report 2015
• Processed foods report 2023 (financing only)

SNF was dismantled in 2022. At that occasion, nutritionsfakta.se and Food & Nutrition Research were handed over to Örebro University Enterprise AB. Documentation about SNF is archived at TAM archive (Tjänstemäns & Akademikers arkiv).

CEOs in SNF 1961–2019

• Gunnar Blix, 1961–1970
• Lars A Carlson, 1971–1972
• Leif Hambraeus, 1972–1979
• Bo Hallgren, 1979–1990
• Nils-Georg Asp, 1990–2009
• Susanne Bryngelsson, 2009–2019