JO GOOSSENS*¹, SIÂN ASTLEY², GLENN MATHIJSSEN**³, HANS SIMILLION³,
PAUL FINGLAS**⁴, DANIELA SEGOVIA LIZANO⁴
*Corresponding Author
** Project Leaders
1. shiftN, Leuven, Belgium
2. EuroFIR AISBL, Brussels, Belgium
3. Alberts, Antwerp, Belgium
4. Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, United Kingdom

Abstract

The PERSFO project (EITFood) will design and test the delivery of personalised nutrition advice with the help of behavioural motivation tools (‘nudging’ concept) in a catering environment. The aim is to deliver proof of concept that behavioural motivation tools are effective in changing dietary choices that are in line with personalised nutritional recommendations. The Quisper platform will be at the heart of the system linking the various tools to generate a federated and flexible approach for making personalised dietary advice useful and effective in a catering service. The project will design and test the concept in a real time environment with a major caterer in a real client context. Partners in the project are Alberts, a smoothie/soup vending machine producer, Sodexo, caterer, KULeuven, motivational tool design, EuroFIR, food data service provider, shiftN, business concept developer. The project is led by Quadram Institute for Biosciences (QIB). This initiative will be one of the first serious attempts to integrate nutrition advice, behavioural motivation and a convenience food service.

BACKGROUND

Personalised nutrition has been an emerging concept since genomics technologies appeared to offer the potential to provide diet and health advice based on an individual’s genetic make-up. Today, the concept is expanding rapidly with numerous  commercial services offered to consumers (1). Tools and services, such as wearable blood monitors and activity trackers, food intake monitoring apps, genomic-based risk analysis, biomarker-based nutritional status, etc. offer a variety of inputs that may help individuals adjust their dietary intake patterns or food choices. Although Food4Me (www.food4me.org, Grant Agreement No. 265494) confirmed that personalised dietary recommendations are adhered to more readily and for longer than generic advice (2), many consumers still struggle to achieve their dietary goals and to eat healthily. Moreover, the context in which these services are provided are not trustworthy, resulting in poor compliance with suggestions.

Recently, Quisper® ASBL (quisper.eu; Quisper® Trademark number EU014508841) has started to standardise approaches and improve some of thes ...