How is technology influencing nutrition?
Looking at all the ways in which technology seems to be influencing the nutrition industry, we can break these down into three core areas:
1. Technology influencing products directly
2. Technology influencing consumer choice
3. The evolution of technology in general
Technology influencing products directly
Technology is influencing products in many different ways, and this isn’t anything particularly new. Take biomimetics in vegan collagen as an example. This type of technology has been around for a while. For brands, there are always challenges to overcome in finding ways to make products better; technology is one vehicle to do this.
What’s interesting to us is how this use of technology aligns with consumer desire for natural products, because if you think about what makes a product natural, you don’t first think about technology. If anything, when you put innovative technology, and developing clinically studied nutraceuticals in a conversation about nutrition, you initially think ‘synthetic’.
Using biomimetics again as an example, they are synthetic natural supplements, plants but not plants. So, how do we wrap our heads around this as a concept when you have technology in one hand and a desire for natural nutrition in the other?
Technology influencing consumer choice
This is about what products to have and when.
The first iteration of this we saw was in personalised nutrition. Think of the brands using questionnaires to gather specific information on consumers’ needs to create more customised supplement recommendations. A good example of this is Care/Of. It asked customers questions about their lifestyle and then created a bespoke mix of vitamins and supplements based on the answers given.
This algorithm technology has evolved quite rapidly. Now we see it quite often in gut microbiome-based testing (think Healthpath) and DNA-based tech (think Randox Health). This technology enhances our ability to make better choices in terms of personalised nutrition (in theory).
But, even with this evolution into technology spearheading personalised nutrition, are we convinced that the industry has changed dramatically? At this point, it is difficult to say much has.
The evolution of technology in general
It’s said that every seven years there is a significant leap in technology. Think of the .com or tech bubble boom. Then we had Apple and Facebook and the rise of social media. Most recently it’s artificial intelligence (AI). At the moment we’re in the hype cycle of AI so we don’t know how the dust is going to settle. Could AI be the breakthrough for personalised nutrition? We’re certainly seeing more brands utilising it (think Spoiled Child), but we just don’t know yet.
For us, technology shaping nutrition gives us a chance to pause and reflect and wait with bated breath to see what’s next.
