Mathilde de Jeu (editor until June 2025)
Mathilde de Jeu (1995) is a freelance journalist and joined The Investigative Desk in 2021. She is specialized in investigating big food & agricultural industries and new tobacco products. Her work has previously been published in the Dutch Journal of Medicine (NTvG), Nieuwsuur, Vrij Nederland and Follow the Money.
Publications

Fitter, better, younger? Big Food’s health supplements mislead European consumers
Big Food is making more and more money with dietary supplements that promise to combat obesity, stress and menopause symptoms. However, nearly half of

From junk to ‘health’: The dangerous spin of Big Food. How Big Food profits from health hype
Large food manufacturers are increasingly positioning themselves as ‘health companies’. But not by making their chocolate, sauces, and desserts less u

With 6 tricks (and clever marketing), the food industry is profiting from the Ozempic hype
Medicines like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are popular weight-loss drugs. ‘Big Food’ sees users as a new outlet and is pushing cheesy factory pizzas,

Taste of temptation
Food manufacturers earn from our propensity to eat unhealthily, and we pay with our health. With clever tricks, copied from the tobacco industry, they

Nespresso’s ‘sustainable’ coffee
Nespresso promises with its quality mark sustainable coffee and better circumstances for the farmers and the environment. But, Columbian coffee farmer

Farmers’ millions evaporate at Vion, top executive resigns
Meat processor Vion is set to shrink by a historic 40 percent. Heavy losses have already left Vion’s owners, farmers in the south, over 120 million eu

Obesity as a profit model
Five of the 10 largest producers of ultra-processed food on the European market are investing in products for diseases caused by unhealthy eating. Mos

Big Tobacco spends billions to expand its influence on healthcare and research
Tobacco giants have invested billions of dollars into remedies for smoking-related diseases, including by funding scientific research into medicine an

The tobacco industry spends billions to gain access to the medical world
The four largest tobacco companies have already invested more than $21 billion in this century altogether, in at least 33 companies making products fo

Tobacco funded research: how even journals with bans find it hard to stem the tide of publications
Tobacco companies are investing billions in pharmaceutical and medical products. These ties complicate the ongoing efforts of researchers, scientific

Outrage over medical investments by tobacco companies
The tobacco industry is earning double from patients who have become ill from smoking through billions in medical investments. Outrage among doctors i

Big Tobacco’s Beyond Nicotine Strategy
The past few years, the four biggest tobacco companies (Philip Morris International/Altria, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and

Minors use Snapchat and TikTok as sales channel for illegal vapes
Young Chinese vape manufacturers, TikTok influencers advertising for fifty euros and underage ‘Snapchat dealers’: the promotion and sale of e-cigarett