By Dominick Rodrigues
India will be leading innovation in the food and nutrition, according to a survey by Nutrify Today platform where 24% respondents believed India to be a leading innovator second only to the United States. Nutraceutical industry leaders from the USA, Israel, Switzerland, Singapore, India, Hong Kong and Japan were part of the survey.
The global industry survey conducted by Nutrify Today — the world’s first and only nutraceuticals i2c (ideas to commercialization) platform — discovered optimism about India’s role in the forward movement of Nutra-tech and Nutraceuticals industry in the future, growing optimism around the food and nutrition industry globally.
With nutrition set to become personalized in future and emergence of fingerprinting of Phyto ingredients from 52 agro-climatic zones, strengths of Indian IT industry — coupled with convergence hub of MedTech like Biovalley Incubation Council and AMTZ in India – is expected to drive convergence innovation in Nutra-tech.
Highlighting the future of Nutra as different from today, Amit Srivastava, Chief Catalyst and Founder, Nutrify Today, said automated personalized nutrition — where artificial intelligence will manage the nutrient needs and the source of ingredients –will evolve into sustainable methodologies by using biotech.
While Nutrify Today has been working towards shaping the growth of the Nutraceuticals industry by empowering responsible nutrition businesses, there are already early-stage entrants who are working on the Nutra-tech, he said, adding that nutraceuticals of the future will be a multi-disciplinary function of the science that will drive personalized precision nutrition into habits of individuals rather than individuals changing habits to adopt something new.
The technological advancements in the Nutra industry will enable a more personalized approach towards nutrition over the next three years with accurate sensors possible via collaborations with expertise in the MedTech industry, according to 26% of the survey respondents.
On the other hand, 12% of the respondents also believe that profiling individuals and providing specific dosages and ingredients — as per their requirements — will be a possibility too in which food can be prepared by a convergence of robotics and 3D printer using lab-grown ingredients, as per the biochemistry and need of the body at that particular time.
Artificial Intelligence is going to play a pivotal role in the Nutra industry too as the food matrix will be designed as per individual needs using data and algorithm, according to 15% of the industry leaders.
The majority of the industry leaders already believe that the existing early versions of technutra products in the market have done well in the US and that precision nutrition– using technutra — is going to gain global significance in the future. With the growing adoption of fingerprinting of Phyto ingredients and deployment of blockchain technologies, it is also expected to change the agricultural sector with an increased demand for nutrition-rich.
However, the industry leaders also identified certain challenges like lack of skilled workforce and global regulatory framework, data privacy, high cost, etc. In a complex environment with opportunity and challenges, it’s often the new generation start-ups that drive innovation and the same is evident from all emerging success stories across the world. While the technutra will be an innovation driven by start-up, eventually there will be large nutrition conglomerates that will enter this segment by way of M&A.
