Personalised nutrition for consumers

Healthier lifestyles are associated with the reduced risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, adopting healthier behaviours is a challenge. Advances in technology have made it easier for individuals to monitor lifestyle attributes such as diet and physical activity (e.g. through smart phone applications and wearable technology); however, one of the main challenges is motivating people to make lifestyle changes before risk factors develop into life threatening and expensive diseases.
PRECIOUS, an EU project in which we are a partner, is developing a system that can integrate all the factors that affect a consumer's health and investigating how motivational techniques can be used to encourage a consumer to further personalise their lifestyle to make healthier choices. There are different degrees of personalised nutrition, from a targeted product range for a sub-section of the population to the use of nutrigenomics. Whilst nutrigenomics results in accurate nutritional guidance, the practicality of implementing this on a mass scale is currently unfeasible; therefore alternative approaches to providing personalised nutrition need to be found, to complement industry product development initiatives.
One approach that is popular with consumers is the use of technology. This allows an individual to monitor their food intake and personalise it to suit their needs. As the use of technology is becoming increasingly popular, manufacturers need to not only look at their product development activities, but also how they can use technology to further tap into this consumer approach to managing health.

More details on the project are available at www.thepreciousproject.eu

Contact: Charlotte Holmes
+44(0)1386 842257
charlotte.holmes@campdenbri.co.uk