Delivering independent human nutrition research for industry
Discover how we transformed a commercial research question into a publication-quality clinical trial
The challenge
Organisations investing in nutrition research often need independent evidence to inform product development, support decision-making and contribute to wider scientific understanding.
The Fruit Juice Science Centre approached us with a question relevant to both industry and public health:
What impact does including fruit juice and smoothies within 5-a-day guidance have on dietary intake, metabolic health and wellbeing?
Answering this question required more than a simple consumer study. Robust evidence was needed to evaluate whether incorporating fruit juice and smoothies into dietary recommendations influenced:
- fruit and vegetable consumption
- metabolic health
- mood and wellbeing
- the acceptability of following dietary guidance
The solution
We designed and delivered an independently conducted randomised controlled trial to investigate the effects of different approaches to meeting 5-a-day recommendations.
The study recruited 42 adults with low habitual fruit and vegetable intake and randomly assigned participants to one of three groups:
- a control group maintaining their usual diet
- a group increasing intake of whole fruit and vegetables to meet 5-a-day guidance
- a group meeting 5-a-day guidance through a combination of whole fruit, vegetables and one daily portion of fruit juice
The project was delivered as a complete end-to-end research programme, providing the client with a single academic partner from study conception through to publication.
This study demonstrates how we can combine specialist academic expertise, clinical research infrastructure and advanced laboratory capabilities to deliver independent, publication-quality human nutrition trials for industry partners
Our approach
We managed every stage of the project, including:
- study design and protocol development
- ethics approval and trial registration
- participant recruitment and management
- intervention delivery
- biological sample collection
- laboratory analysis
- statistical analysis
- scientific reporting and dissemination
A wide range of objective and participant-reported measures were collected throughout the study, including:
- dietary intake assessments
- biomarkers of fruit and vegetable consumption
- advanced metabolomic profiling covering more than 250 health-related biomarkers
- mood and wellbeing assessments
- gut health measures
- intervention acceptability data
This multidisciplinary approach combined nutrition expertise, clinical research infrastructure and advanced laboratory capabilities to generate robust, publication-quality evidence.
The results and impact
The study achieved excellent participant engagement, with all 42 participants completing the intervention and providing a robust dataset for analysis.
The findings showed that both dietary interventions significantly increased fruit and vegetable intake compared with the control group, and participants found the interventions acceptable and achievable in practice. Importantly, including fruit juice as part of 5-a-day guidance had no negative effects on metabolic health or gut symptoms, while positive effects on measures of mood and wellbeing were observed.
Beyond answering the original research question, the project our ability to deliver rigorous, independent human nutrition research for commercial organisations.
The study was published in a leading peer-reviewed journal, attracted extensive media coverage across national newspapers and consumer publications, and provided valuable insights for both industry and public health stakeholders.