Food4Me: “Personalised Nutrition: An integrated analysis of opportunities and challenges”

• Project Dates: 2011 - 2015
• Project Leader: Lynn Frewer (WP 2)
• Staff: Sharron Kuznesof, AFRD, Newcastle University; Barbara Stewart-Knox, Maresa Duffy, Audrey Rankin, University of Ulster; Arnout Fischer, Aleksandra Berezowska, Ivo van der Lans, Wageningen University; Maria Daniel Vaz de Almeida, Rui Poinhos, University of Porto.
• Sponsors: EU FP 7 (KBBE Theme: Strategies for Personalised Nutrition)

The mapping of the human genome in 2000 introduced the possibility of individualised medicine, including personalised nutrition. Although the field of “nutrigenomics” (which examines the relationship between food and gene expression) has emerged, personalised nutrition has failed to develop as a commercial service, and matching dietary advice to genetic profiles has proven difficult.

Food4Me was a €9 million collaboration project coordinated by University College Dublin (PI: Mike Gibney) that aimed to:

determine the application of personalised nutrition, through the development of suitable business models, research on technological advances, and validation of delivery methods for personalised nutrition advice.

compile current scientific knowledge and consumer understanding of personalised nutrition, including best practice communication strategies and ethical boundaries, to be shared with the EU institutions, the food industry, and other stakeholders.

The outcome of the 4 year interdisciplinary project comprising of 25 participating organisations, was to identify the opportunities and challenges in establishing suitable business models for the delivery of personalised nutrition at all stages of the food chain.

Food4Me was delivered through seven work packages:

• Business and value creation models
• Consumer attitudes to personalised nutrition
• Technologies to deliver personalised nutrition
• Testing models for the delivery of personalised nutrition
• Ethical and legal aspects of personalised nutrition
• Communication
• Management

Work package 2 ‘Consumer Attitudes to Personalised Nutrition’ was led by Professor Lynn Frewer, Newcastle University (CRE/AFRD). The overall deliverable of this work package was to inform stakeholders of consumer attitudes and beliefs relating to personalised nutrition. Specific research tasks include:

• Focus groups (n=2) in each country participating in work package 4’s proof of principle study (Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and UK)  explored attitudes and perception of personalised nutrition, in particular perceived risks and benefits and needs, values and preferences relating to personalised nutrition information and to identify potential differences according to demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors.
• Development of a questionnaire was administered in (n=1,000) members of the public in each of the eight countries identified above. The outcome included a theoretical model of the factors influencing consumer decision-making regarding personalised nutrition.
• Comparative analysis of attitudes to personalised nutrition of members of the public, with participants exposed to different levels of personalised nutrition within the multi-centre WP4 proof of principle study (approximately n=1,000) took place.

Integration of research findings to facilitate the communication of a personalised nutrition (PN) concept and PN service offering.