Strong partnerships drive innovation in personalized nutrition

One of the most quickly evolving markets is personalized nutrition. From customized supplements to the proliferation of wearables and at-home kits, or even the advent of smart toilets, these tools are optimizing health and revolutionizing nutrition as we know it.

Drivers

With many foregoing one-size-fits-all and opting for a more tailored approach, companies are launching new supplements, at-home kits, subscription models and platforms to keep up with consumer demand.

As consumers use digital technology to track their every move, these real-time tools are a constant reminder of the crucial role PN plays. And with the targeted scalability of direct-to-consumer models utilizing e-commerce, the market is only expected to continue to gain momentum.

The global personalized retail nutrition and wellness market size was valued at $1.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% from 2021 to 2028, as indicated by Grandview Research.

But consumers aren’t the only ones picking and choosing. Companies are also finding their perfect match in mutually beneficial partnerships.

Strength in numbers

The most discernible trend among personalized nutrition players is strategic partnerships. Companies have recognized that combining suppliers, research firms and other stakeholders to build one fire alliance is the key to conquering the growing market.

“The R&D initiatives in personalized nutrition involve collaborative innovation as personalized nutrition requires technologies such as data tracking and collection to obtain individual health data. With these technologies, an individual’s health data could be obtained, and by vast data accumulation, the individual health database and standards could be established. Therefore, many players collaborate with material suppliers, scientific research institutions, medical institutions, and other stakeholders to build a personalized nutrition industry alliance and integrate R&D, production, and education,” a report from Research and Markets stated.

Leveraging respective capabilities

Indeed, a number of companies are entering into partnership with nutrigenomics startups to further boost the market for personalized nutrition.

Healthycell & Panaceutics​

Last summer, Healthycell partnered with Panaceutics​ to deliver on-demand personalized nutrition gel formulas at scale. The formulas are created in response to customers' individual biomarker readings and eventually, predictive analytics.

Douglas Giampapa, CEO, Healthycell, told NutraIngredients-USA that the company partnered with FDA-registered, CLIA-certified 3rd-party labs to offer at-home blood collection test kits to measure micronutrients and analyze epigenetic profiles that correlate to conditions in the body. He added that they may also use mobile phlebotomists.

“Depending on the formula, we can work with 50+ ingredients in each gel pack. This gives us a tremendous advantage over gummies, which have a low ingredient load,” noted Giampapa. 

IFF & Salus Optima​

Another collaboration was discussed during a recent NutraCast episode with IFF​. Alex de Souza Carvalho, Global Director, Innovation Marketing for IFF’s Nourish, explained that the company entered the personalized nutrition sector by partnering with Salus Optima, a British-based, digitally-enabled personalized nutrition health and wellness company.

Together, they can enable consumers to understand their metabolic response to food, supplements, activity and sleep, through smartphones and wearables.

“This smartwatch will give them a notification saying, look, we know that yesterday you did this kind of exercise, you have eaten this kind of food, you breathe in that fashion, your blood sugar levels are in that fashion. So why don't you do this kind of sport activity, why don't you eat this kind of food, why don't you drink this amount of water? So this is going to be helping people on behavioral changes,” Carvalho explained during the NutraCast.

Green Mountain Biotech & MeNow​

Another instance is the collaboration of Green Mountain Biotech (GMB), a raw material company that develops and supplies botanical ingredients to the skincare industry, and MeNow, a biological cosmetic personalization company that uses a deep tech AI platform.

Earlier this year, the two companies announced plans​ to develop personalization skincare products by leveraging machine learning and TCM to identify new synergistic ingredient combinations.

Nourished x Neutrogena​

And that’s not the only partnership banking on personalized beauty. Skincare extraordinaires Neutrogena and 3D-printed supplement brand Nourished debuted their Nourished x Neutrogena Skin360 SKINSTACKS at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show in Las Vegas recently.

Together, the duo will leverage artificial intelligence and 3D-printing technology to create on-demand dietary supplements. Each Nourished x Neutrogena Skin360 SkinStacks is powered by the Neutrogena’s Skin360 digital skin assessment, which uses over 100,000 skin pixels to analyze over 2,000 facial attributes. The algorithm was developed using facial databases across ethnicities, skin types, and ages.

Using proprietary 3D-printing technology by Nourished, the SkinStacks are printed by combining seven layers of ingredients into one vegan, sugar-free gummy stack.

“There are 14 different validated ingredients from vitamins, minerals, and superfoods and botanical actives that are available in the range in different combinations and different amounts. These ingredients are beneficial for a wide variety of different skin health goals and needs,” Melissa Snover, founder and CEO, Nourished, explained during a NutraCast episode​.

AnimalBiome & Felix Biotechnology​

It doesn’t end with humans–pet parents are opting for tailored solutions for their fur babies too. Felix Biotechnology, which develops antibacterial therapies to treat drug-resistant infections, partnered with AnimalBiome, a company focused on pet gut health.

The companies joined forces to tackle every pet parent's nightmare: pet diarrhea. Through its approach to phage technologies, Felix Biotechnology will create what it calls “a chemical-free, durable and effective treatment for this pernicious pathogen.”

"Phage technology offers great promise in reducing the use of antibiotics in the treatment of bacterial pathogens, protecting beneficial microbes and supporting better health and wellness," explained Holly Ganz, PhD​, co-founder and chief science officer of AnimalBiome.

Going global

According to every market report we looked at, North America is the largest personalized nutrition market. A report from Globenewswire said the region accounts for 43% of the global market and predicts it will continue to grow.

Research and Markets noted that the personalized nutrition market is highly competitive due to the presence of numerous players, with the market dominated by vendors that have an international presence.

Whether it takes place down the road or across the globe, strategic partnerships and collaborative innovations are a sure way to gain access to more opportunities in personalized nutrition.