Consumer acceptance of personalised nutrition.

Abstract

The last decades, science and technology have developed at a rapid rate in many fields, offering potential benefits for the consumer as an individual (e.g. personal computers) and society as a whole (e.g. food preservation technology). Some technologies diffused very successfully into society, others did not. Nutrigenomics is a recent example of an emerging technology in the area of nutrition. It has been defined as ‘‘understanding how nutrition influences metabolism and maintenance of the internal equilibrium in the body, how this regulation is disturbed in the early phase of a diet-related disease and to what extent the individual genotype contributes to such diseases’’ [5]. Nutrigenomics is a research area developing at high speed, both fundamentally and applied. A deeper understanding of how nutrition influences the activity of human genes may contribute to improved quality of life by providing opportunities to develop food products or dietary advice tailored to the nutritional needs of specific groups in society, or even individuals. This so-called personalised nutrition (PN) is the most vivid application of nutrigenomics. PN is an innovative concept that identifies individual nutritional needs based on genetic make-up. Included in the concept are the products and services that will be developed according to those needs. Some authors have argued that these personalised foods will move the food market towards a consumer pull system, where the consumer’s preference for optimal health is a major driver for food choice [3]. However, as well as providing the opportunity for improved consumer health, PN may also raise concerns in society regarding privacy and control over sensitive information. Moreover, PN will only contribute to the quality of life of end-users if they are motivated and able to act according to their personalised recommendations on food intake. In order to maximise exploitation of nutrigenomics’ potential, it is important to integrate the view of the end-user into the development of the technology.