KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 — France has promoted a feed-based “farm-to-fork” nutrition model for Malaysia that links livestock feed composition to the nutritional quality of meat and dairy products.
The Biru-Putih-Hati / Bleu-Blanc-Cœur One Health event, co-organised by Bleu-Blanc-Cœur International in partnership with the French Embassy and Business France Malaysia, brought together representatives from the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (KPKM), academia, and industry to discuss links between food production and public health.
Acting French Ambassador Olivier Sigaud said at the event yesterday that discussions on obesity and diet should extend beyond individual behaviour to how food is produced.
“We cannot only tell people to choose better. We have to look at how food is produced in the first place,” Sigaud said. “If we want healthier diets, we must start upstream, with farming systems and what goes into the food that eventually reaches consumers.”
He noted that nearly 55 per cent of Malaysian adults are overweight or obese, citing the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS). “This is not only a public health issue, it carries an economic cost,” Sigaud said. “The estimated impact is around 2.8 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product), about RM20 billion.”
MOH Says Healthy Eating Efforts Undermined By Market Conditions
Malaysia continues to face a “double burden” of malnutrition, with overweight and obesity increasingly common while micronutrient deficiencies persist among certain groups.
MOH nutrition division director Rusidah Selamat said that while Malaysians generally know what constitutes a healthy diet, food choices are heavily influenced by price, convenience, and marketing.
“Obesity has become almost normal in the population,” Rusidah said, noting NHMS findings that nearly half of Malaysian adults are overweight or obese. “We can promote healthy diets, but if healthier options are less affordable or less available, people cannot practise them.”
She added that the ministry is developing the National Nutrition Policy 3.0 (2026–2030), which will prioritise structural changes to improve access to healthier foods, rather than relying solely on education campaigns.
MOH disease control division deputy director (NCDs) Dr Nik Khairol Reza Md Yazin said non-communicable diseases now account for more than half of medically certified deaths in Malaysia, with overweight and obesity among the highest in Asean.
“For every two Malaysians, one is overweight or obese,” he said. “The health impact is clear, but the economic impact is also serious. We are spending around RM74 billion on mortality and morbidity related to NCDs, and that does not yet include indirect costs.”
He added that many Malaysians with early signs of disease remain undiagnosed due to low screening uptake. “Two out of five adults do not know they have hypertension or diabetes because they have never been screened,” Dr Nik Khairol Reza said.
“Prevention has to happen before symptoms appear.”
Nutrition Researcher: Dietary Shifts And Food Costs Shape Health Outcomes
UCSI University associate professor Dr Satvinder Kaur said Malaysia’s nutrition challenges now affect both adults and children, noting rising rates of obesity alongside increasing stunting and food insecurity.
“We are seeing obesity and overweight becoming normalised, but at the same time, stunting has not gone away,” she said. “This is not an acute malnutrition issue; it reflects long-term dietary patterns.”
She highlighted that stunting rates are similar in both rural and urban areas, suggesting that the problem is not only linked to poverty or geography.
“This tells us the issue is across environments,” Dr Satvinder said. “Food insecurity is increasing, and basic nutritious foods are becoming more expensive. Fruits and vegetables are priced beyond reach for many households.”
She described Malaysian diets as undergoing a rapid transition away from traditional foods such as ulam and home-fermented dairy, towards more processed and commercially prepared meals. Factors like time constraints, convenience, and aggressive food marketing contribute to these shifts.
“We are moving away from our traditional diets. We eat outside more, we rely on processed food, and we have less time to cook,” she said.
Dr Satvinder said improving nutrition literacy alone is insufficient without changes to the food environment, and called for closer coordination between agriculture and health sectors.
“Nutrition cannot stand alone,” she said. “We need to bring farmers, retailers, policymakers, and communities together if we want to make healthier food affordable and accessible.”
DVS: Livestock Sector Faces Feed and Import Dependence
DVS outlined structural constraints in Malaysia’s dairy and ruminant industries that remain heavily dependent on imported livestock and feed. The sector is dominated by smallholders, with roughly 700 local dairy farmers supplying fresh milk into centralised collection centres.
“We have around 700 small local dairy farmers, but half of our supply still relies on imports,” DVS veterinary officer Dr Rahaizanwati Abdul Rahim said. “We import live animals because we do not have enough cattle in the country, only about 50,000 head. We also import liquid milk.”
Rising global feed prices have further strained dairy, beef, and swine operations. “High feed cost affects dairy, beef, and swine farmers. It puts pressure on farm profitability,” Dr Rahaizanwati said.
The DVS official added that land competition, disease risks, and community concerns over odour and waste management continue to limit livestock expansion.
“Land is a constraint. Agriculture is competing with other development,” she said, noting that while Malaysia has set targets to increase beef self-sufficiency to 50 per cent by 2030 from 15.9 per cent in 2023, achieving this remains “an uphill task” under current conditions.
Bleu-Blanc-Cœur Promotes Feed-Based Nutrition Model
Bleu-Blanc-Cœur international development manager Jérémie Renaud presented the organisation’s “One Health” model, which links livestock feeding practices to both human and animal health outcomes.
He explained that the approach originated in France more than 20 years ago, when a dairy farmer, an agronomist, and a physician observed that changes in cattle feed composition altered the nutritional profile of milk and meat.
“They adjusted the animal diet, and we saw changes in animal health and product composition,” Renaud said. “The question was: does this also have an effect on humans?”
Renaud said the group conducted clinical trials in France in which participants consumed foods derived from animals fed under the Bleu-Blanc-Cœur model. “People did not change what they ate, only the feed given to the animals was different, and we observed measurable changes in metabolic markers and gut microbiota,” he said.
The NGO now works in 18 countries and promotes its model as a way to connect agriculture, food systems and public health. Renaud said the approach focuses on adjusting the fatty acid balance in animal feed using crops such as grass and flax, which he said can improve animal performance while reducing methane emissions.
“This is not about one product,” Renaud said. “It is about developing an ecosystem across farmers, processors, retailers and consumers.”
Local animal health company Rhone Ma Holdings Berhad said it has been collaborating with Bleu-Blanc-Cœur since 2016 to apply the model in Malaysia. Group managing director Dr Lim Ban Keong described the framework as commercially workable.
“This is not only a scientific concept. It is a practical business model connecting farmers, food producers and consumers around one promise – healthy farming, healthy food, healthy people,” Dr Lim said.
During the closing discussion, several industry participants asked how such approaches could be integrated into Malaysia’s food system and which agency would coordinate cross-sector work. No timeline, working committee, or follow-up mechanism was announced at the event.
Dining and Cooking