A few years ago, the science linking personal health outcomes with individualized diets was not ready, but in a few more years the Personalized Nutrition space will have exploded with competitors given the convergence of four trends: (1) growing consumer demand for products and services that take into account their health concerns, (2) advances in nutritional science that improve understanding of how diet affects health, (3) new diagnostics and devices that have opened up ways to measure and monitor health and fitness, and (4) the rise of analytics tools that turn that data into real-world insights.
The key question is how might different future scenarios unfold in the space of Personalized Nutrition and how can food companies best compete in this space?  I investigated this topic recently for my Futures Research course in UH’s Foresight Program, from which I will be graduating in May with an M.S.  I am currently Director of Consumer Insights at Campbell Soup Company, and so this topic is very relevant for my company, in addition to serving as a fascinating class assignment.
The domain map to the right shows how complex the Personalized Nutrition space is. I was particularly interested in exploring who might be our competitors in the future.  A couple themes that emerged from environmental scanning were “Incentivized Food-Care” and “Health Beyond Real Food.”  Campbell has been very public about its “Real Food” purpose, but food companies like ours will have to confront advances in man-made foods for optimized health outcomes.
For example, Day Two announced financing through J&J Innovation and others.  And Johnson & Johnson has announced its exploration into the links between gut health and skin health/beauty.  It is not hard to imagine a neutralceutical line of creams, vitamins and even foods that link an individual’s microbiome with physical wellbeing outcomes.  Similarly, Soylent continues to be an offering to keep an eye on, with Rosa Foods Inc. testing a national rollout in 7-Eleven stores.  Further, as healthcare systems test different “prescriptions” for healthy diets, it would make personalized, healthy diets affordable for all.
All these changes signal an opportunity for food companies to expand how they think about food and how it will be produced, distributed and sold in the future.  Our success in the future will depend on it.