Qina and Blendhub to personalize nutritional powders in new “global ecosystem”

17 Nov 2021 --- Qina and Blendhub are partnering to spearhead a “global ecosystem” that can lead to the development of personalized powder-based nutrition solutions.

“Personalized nutrition is without a doubt the most important trend in the global food industry. Consumers are increasingly concerned about their health, well-being and even longevity,” Henrik Stamm Kristensen, founder and CEO of Blendhub, tells NutritionInsight.

The ecosystem aims to bring together the expertise of both Qina, a nutrition industry consultancy and Blendhub, a global network of multi-localized food production hubs. 

Their partnership targets companies interested in creating “opportunities and projects that translate science into innovative solutions,” note the collaborators. It seeks to utilize technology, data, the growing trend of personalized nutrition, as well as the benefits of powder-based formats. Personalization is seen as a key trend across the industry. 

Utilizing powder solutions

As part of the plan to open up the space for personalized nutrition solutions, the focus of the project lies in powder-based formats. 

“Of the food we consume, 40% is based on powder: flour, cocoa, coffee, sugar, spices and even baby and sports nutrition,” highlights Kristensen. 

 Infant nutrition, in particular, has been flagged as a key area for personalization across the industry, with the possibilities described as “endless.” 

“Powder is also the basis for a great part of food supplements and functional ingredients to create healthy and customized nutritional products. And best of all, powder has a very long shelf life, which prevents waste,” he adds. 

 The choice of powder-based formats is also linked to Blendhub’s expertise in supporting food companies with their launches of powder-based ingredients solutions from start to finish, notes Kristensen. 

Bridging expertise
Blendhub’s contribution will lie in offering its localized food production Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, that can enable access to patented technology. 

The company’s Food-as-a-Service platform will help food companies design, produce and launch new food products anywhere in the world. It will also be able to validate all new ingredients and formulations using Chemometric Brain’s software.

Qina aims to provide Blendhub with strategic guidance, insights and leadership in relation to personalized nutrition technologies. 

It will also offer information on industry trends, scientific advances and consumer behaviors, as well as access to a database of companies and approved functional ingredients which can be used in Blendhub Food-as-a-Service offerings.The growing availability of data is allowing personalization trends to manifest.

Harnessing data for personalization
Beyond the applications of powder-based formats, technology is opening up vast spheres of data, which can be utilized for personalization trends.

According to Kristensen, “we now live in the era of exponential data acquisition.” 

“Not only can we obtain consumer data and define specific products and diets for specific consumers’ needs, but we are also able to predict crops, develop novel raw material and food ingredients never experienced before,” he notes. 

The growing personalization trend was flagged by Qina earlier this year, when the consultancy launched a B2B company nutrition market insight database. 

Collaborations for the future
The ecosystem that Qina and Blendhub are fostering is indicative of how the food industry is likely to evolve in the future, states Kristensen. 

“This type of collaboration shows the future of collaboration in the food industry, where open platforms will bring together key players with a unique know-how to create shared value business opportunities for all involved,” he says.

“We expect great acceptance for the project because evidence-based personalized nutrition is a global demand in both industry and by final consumers.”

Though the financial details of the partnership is not disclosed, Kristensen notes, “the cost of this collaboration will be minimal as a result of two highly mature and developed offerings from Qina and Blendhub.”

“Platform collaboration like this aims to generate business and shared value for both companies, their customers and partners and most importantly for final consumers and planet,” underscores Kristensen.

 By Andria Kades