‘Cost effective and reliable’: Singapore personalised nutrition start-up hails questionnaire-based service
Working with an Australian OEM factory, the firm has developed a health assessment questionnaire and 21 dietary supplements which are also branded as ‘Paquet’. These products bear the iconic ‘Made in Australia’ logo.
The 21 products include omega-3 fish oil, shark cartilage, bilberry, evening primrose oil, probiotics, goats’ milk and colostrum.
Users will need to answer 62 questions and a proprietary algorithm is used to assess their nutritional needs.
More than 20,000 different combinations of supplements are available, depending on the consumers’ needs.
As compared to more sophisticated DNA testing methods, the firm saw benefits in using questionnaires, especially because it is more affordable for consumers.
“The benefits of the blood tests, saliva swab or DNA test, would definitely be more in-depth than the online assessment, but the cost would be expensive and most people are not willing to spend that amount of money,” co-founder and director Terence Tan told NutraIngredients-Asia.
He added that the questionnaire was also a basic entry level tool for people to start to know about their health.
Asked how it could offer a credible nutrition service, he said that the firm had fine-tuned collected data before launching the service.
“It is accurate, because prior to doing this, we have already started taking in more than 200 results to fine tune the data.
“With the help of nutritionists to fine tune the data and to make it localised to Singapore’s context, it will definitely be credible for Singaporeans to start understanding about their health.”
How does it work?
After completing the questionnaires, a customised set of supplements will be recommended to the users.
Prices of the supplements can range from SGD$7 for a month’s supply of vitamin C to SGD$36 for a bilberry and lutein eye care formula.
The firm will also conduct a follow-up with the users a month after they have engaged their service.
Coming from a family which has been operating health and wellness firm Robust & Life Compact for the past 33 years, Tan said that the decision to focus on the personalised nutrition business was to help consumers navigate the dietary supplements market.
“A lot of consumers are actually quite confused with supplements. There are so many supplements out there, but what's best for them?
“That's why we decided to create this platform and conduct an assessment which was created by nutritionists to better cater to the consumers' needs.”
Gifting concept
The team currently receives nearly 10 orders each day, mostly from consumers aged 30 to 50.
Unexpectedly, most consumers are males, with the ratio of male to female consumers at 6 to 4.
The firm hopes to double the number of orders by the end of this year, and one way is to promote the concept of gifting.
“The users can put in the name of the person that they want to buy the products for and from there, we will write special cards for the person, create a personalised box dedicated for that person.
“The idea is to give it as a gift to people, and we do have people who are purchasing for their parents, for their spouse, as a thoughtful gift”, said co-founder Jerica Tan.
On the other hand, the firm has also created six health supplement packages catered for consumers who find the health assessment a hassle.
The six packages cater to the needs of other commonly seen needs, such as multivitamins and probiotics for travellers, liver detox and coQ10 for the late sleeper.
