What is the Institute?

The foundations of the Health Food Institute were laid in 1979 as a body to recognise and reward excellence in education for the health food industry.

Subsequently two bodies, the Institute and Training School were amalgamated and now provide industry standards, training and recognition for individuals who through their personal efforts, contribute to the success of the natural product market as a whole.

The Institute Council consists of voluntary members, active within the industry in a variety of roles from retail to manufacturing.

The Institute is a non-profit making organisation devoted to providing high quality training for all health food retailers and their staff; thus raising standards of service to consumers and in turn raising awareness of the potent value of wholefoods, natural products, herbal remedies, and vitamin and mineral supplements.

The courses are also adopted by the sales and technical staff at many of the industry’s best-known suppliers, and are attracting interest from related organisations and even consumers who want to extend their knowledge of natural products and remedies.

Since its inception, the Institute has participated in modifying Establishment thinking toward the health food industry and its message. Indeed, a number of current policies of government and orthodox medical thinking encompasses that which the health food trade has advocated through its ‘mission statement’ initiated in 1898 by James Henry Cook, the man who opened the UK’s very first health food store in Birmingham and coined the name health food store.

Each year the Institute hosts its Annual Awards Luncheon, which includes the Jack Noah Memorial Lecture in which an eminent person from academia, medicine or government presents a paper on a key research area affecting the health of the nation. Awards are presented to the most successful and hard-working students, as well as to those who have devoted their lives to the principles for which the Institute stands.

The institute is governed by a council made up of prominent retailers and health food industry leaders who give their time and energy freely in the cause of meeting the need for the highest professional standards. It is financed entirely by course fees, membership subscriptions and the generous support of health food companies click here .