Personalised nutrition round-up: Latest updates from APAC companies, associations, and regulators

Gut feeling: Fonterra’s new venture arm eyeing China and US investments for microbiome personalised nutrition solutions​

Fonterra says the microbiome is increasingly taking the centre stage when it comes to human health, with its new nutrition science venture arm identifying China and US as key investment targets for personalised solutions.

The company's Nutrition Science Solutions (NSS) announced its first investment of US$10 million last month in Pendulum Therapeutics – a US biotech developing microbiome-targeted products focused on restoring metabolic health.

Through NSS, it is hoping to explore new business models that “go beyond everyday lifestyle and wellness products, looking at the intersect between food, medicine, and technology.”​

Bayer Consumer Health looks to tie-up precision health innovation with existing supplement brands​​

The Consumer Health Division of Bayer is looking for a tie-up between its flagship health supplement brands and its newly formed precision health group – which it believes will occupy 10 to 20 per cent of the consumer health care industry within the next decade.

Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia, ​Aquil Harjivan, R&D Head – Digital Health, said that the precision health group would look to develop a variety of products.

This will range from physical diagnostics, including epigenetic testing, fast screening of conditions, providing services such as telehealth, developing software solutions, to providing personalised nutrition, such as vitamins, minerals, and supplements.

‘Educating and innovating’: Indian microbiome testing firm to offer precision probiotics by mid-August ​​ ​

Delhi-based microbiome testing company Genefitletics will be offering precision probiotics as part of its service by mid-August.

The firm currently offers three types of microbiome testing services that look at gut health, gut-vaginal health, and kids’ health – spanning from the immune system, metabolic health to brain development.

By the next 1.5 months, the company hopes to provide precision probiotics products that users of its microbiome testing service could purchase, founder and CEO Sushant Kumar told NutraIngredients-Asia.​

Interdisciplinary research, products and services innovation to drive the future of personalised nutrition – China industry association​​ ​

Interdisciplinary scientific research, as well as innovative products and services, is set to drive the future of personalised nutrition, according to a set of expert guidelines published by China Nutrition and Health Food Association (CNHFA).

These guidelines were introduced to help the domestic health supplement industry better understand the sector, drive research and uptake of personalised nutrition in the country.

One of the key points is how innovation in the research, methodology, and techniques across a range of subjects, such as medicine, nutrition, genetics, physiology, biology, bioinformatics, social ecology, and data science, could promote the materialisation of personalised nutrition.

The rising star? South Korea project to set national guidelines for personalised nutrition sector​

The South Korean authorities are in the midst of a five-year long project in establishing national guidelines for the flourishing personalised nutrition category.

Helming the project are Log(me) Inc – a spin-off from Ewha Womans University, microbiome start-up Human Effective Microbes Pharma (HEM Pharma), as well as Ehwa Womans University. They were selected by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to oversee the project worth KRW$2.2bn (US$1.66m).

Dr. Yosep Ji, CEO of HEM Pharma, said that personalised nutrition was seen as a “new rising star”​ in the health and nutrition sector.