Tracking the gut in real-time: FoodMarble founder highlights potential of personalized nutrition

11 Oct 2019 --- Consumers are looking for increasingly personalized levels of care, particularly within the digestive space. This is according to Lisa Ruttledge, COO and Co-Founder of FoodMarble, a start-up producing a portable breath test and app, dubbed FoodMarble Aire, to measure and track digestive health. She speaks to NutritionInsight about the potential for technology in the nutrition industry, as well as the company’s collaboration agreement with biotechnology company Carbiotix. The partners will hold a preliminary study to examine whether breath hydrogen can be used as a non-invasive, real-time measure of changes in microbiome composition.

“If there is a correlation between breath readings and microbiome changes, it could mean that breath testing could support people in non-invasively tracking changes in their microbiome over time,” explains Ruttledge.

The eight-week study will be held later this year and will be managed by FoodMarble in Ireland, while Carbiotix in Sweden will provide gut health analysis services. Two different prebiotic fibers will be examined in 20 individuals. 

FoodMarble’s pocket-sized breath analysis device brings personalization to the mass market and combines digestive health research with sensor and mobile technology. Users log their meals after they eat, with the app then prompting them to take regular breath tests as the food moves through the gut. This measures how well the food is being digested, allowing users to ultimately find out which foods they can digest the most successfully.

FoodMarble Aire could be used to modify the dosing of Carbiotix therapeutic products in real-time.Eventually, the FoodMarble Aire could be used to modify the dosing of Carbiotix therapeutic products in real-time. Aside from seeing if the proposed correlation exists, the study will also serve as a basis to evaluate future collaborative opportunities between Carbiotix and Food Marble with regards to studies and the bundling of products and services.

This agreement comes as consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of gut health for their general health. Gut health impacts everything from the immune system to mental health. As a result, the interest in digestive health is increasing significantly, says Ruttledge. There is also a growing awareness about the impact of diet and lifestyle factors on digestive health and general health.

“Our customers are people who want to have a better understanding of how well they digest different foods in order to find out which are compatible with their unique digestive system. Often, they are people who have experienced the frustration of trying to pinpoint what foods cause issues for them, and they want to track things in an objective, scientific way. This is exactly what we designed the FoodMarble digestive breath tester for,” she continues. 

Unique technology for unique bodies
Technological breakthroughs are allowing consumers to receive evermore personalized recommendations about what and how they eat. The gut health space is especially ripe for innovation due to the diversity of the microbiome. 

“The reality is that our bodies are made up differently from each other. Personalized nutrition has potential in creating targeted probiotics. For example, these could be created around someone’s specific needs for a certain level of microbiome diversity,” notes Ruttledge. 

This personalization is providing a key opportunity to those concerned with gut health to optimize the care given. “Everybody’s digestive system is unique, which means that the types of foods that can be tolerated well vary from person to person. Our customers are keen to learn exactly how they respond to different foods so they can find which foods are most suited to them in order to avoid digestive symptoms,” she continues.Users can track their digestion in real-time through the app.

Sensor technology has evolved significantly in the last five years and is continuing to evolve at a fast pace, highlights Ruttledge. “We also see an increased interest in the application of digital health technologies in clinical practice.” The company is now exploring expanding into the clinician and hospital sector, with Ruttledge noting that this space is quite different from the consumer-tech space.

Meanwhile, the company has also faced challenges associated with creating an entirely new product category. “Additionally, as a start-up, bringing a hardware product to market is a big challenge. We wanted to miniaturize the approach used in hospitals and make it more affordable to people, but it was also important for us to maintain quality. Our challenges ranged from device design and calibration to setting up supply chains and creating the right app to go alongside the device,” Ruttledge concludes. 

Since launching last December following US$1 million in preorders, Food Marble has gained over 12,000 customers around the globe. The technology is available in most English-speaking countries and in all of the EU. 

As personalized nutrition eyes the mass market, strategic partnerships between tech-savvy start-ups and larger companies will be crucial to mainstream growth. However, challenges related to navigating the barrage of murky information on social media has meant that the regulation of nutritional knowledge is crucial, as told to NutritionInsights at Anuga 2019. 

By Katherine Durrell