Personal lifestyle assistant for better health through nutrition
Cook2Health supports healthier eating with a personalised coaching system that uses connected home cooking appliances to record and analyse what a person eats, and inform them about their nutritional intake. To get this innovation into the market, the project is running a clinical test of the system’s long-term health benefits.
Unhealthy dietary habits are a major factor contributing to a worldwide increase in chronic conditions. With a commitment to healthy and tasty cooking, Groupe SEB in 2013 carried out a three-month qualitative study to test the impact of connected cooking appliances on dietary habits and health parameters. The promising results of that study encouraged creation of the Cook2Health partnership.
Team
Groupe SEB, a leader in small household appliances, makes connected cooking devices. Université Grenoble Alpes, France, has interests in nutrition, metabolism and 4P medicine (predictive, personalised, preventive, participatory). Aberystwyth University, UK, a diet and health specialist, focuses on biomarkers to measure diet. Universitat of Barcelona, Spain, has expertise in biomarkers and dietary assessment.
The project
Cook2Health is a randomised control clinical trial set up to demonstrate the health benefits of a personalised dietary coaching solution. The solution produces a nutritional profile that the participant can use to track and improve their diet.
After a validation mockup phase with 20 volunteers, the on-going trial runs for a full year – unusual in the nutrition domain, where clinical tests usually last from one to three months. During that year, Cook2Health will assess adherence and health of 160 volunteers, recruited in France and the UK. Participants are routinely tested for more than 30 health parameters, including body composition, blood tests, gut microbiota measures, urinary biomarkers, physical activity data, etc.
Some of the testing will be done with a diagnostic tool that measures urinary biomarkers and is being developed specifically for the Cook2Health project. This new tool will support the sales of a urinary kit produced by Aberystwyth.
Impact
- Cook2Health will have the immediate, significant impact of accelerating market access for a product that supports people in achieving better health.
- Cook2Health will drive the evolution of personalised health empowerment.
- The long-term social contribution would be to modify dietary habits of many people, thereby easing their lives, decreasing chronic disease and fostering healthier senior years.
Why this is an EIT Health project
Cook2Health is aligned with the EIT Health focus areas of “Behavioural Change” and, indirectly, “Bringing Care Home”. It shares EIT Health values because it:
- uses new technologies to improve health;
- empowers citizens to take charge of their own health;
- enables personalised, preventive measures in a person’s home.
Given this appealing potential of healthy dietary lifestyles adoption to decrease the incidence of chronic diseases, Groupe SEB gathered four partners to set up Cook2Health.
Paul Dancer, R&D Partnership Manager, Groupe SEB
Members
CLC/InnoStars: Spain
Partner classification: Academic, Education, Research
The University of Barcelona is the most intensive university in research in Spain. Our university has a great capacity for innovation in various fields, of which the health sector stands out both due to the amount and the quality of the outcomes produced by faculties such as the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Nutrition or the Faculty of Psychology. Our activity within the EIT Health projects is often enriched and sometimes dominated by the technology and/or knowledge created in the Faculties of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science or even Fine Arts. We have also several Research Institutes that merge multidisciplinary teams working on topics as diverse as Neuroscience, Complex systems, Biomedicine, etc. as well as a couple of Technology Transfer Institutes such as CREATIO https://www.ub.edu/creatio/en/, the first Academic Center for the Production and Validation of Advanced Therapies in Spain, and Farmatec http://www.ub.edu/sdm/in_index.htm, a Service of Development of Medicines under GMP regulation
University of Barcelona
University of Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, España
Key Activities in Research and Developement
https://web.ub.edu/en/research
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
https://web.ub.edu/en/the-university
Key Activities in Business Creation
https://startub.ub.edu/en/community/incubated-companies/
Key Activities in Education
https://web.ub.edu/en/learn
CLC/InnoStars: France
Partner classification: Education, Research, Tech Transfer, Clusters, Other NGOs
The UGA in Grenoble is a leading University of Science Technology and Health. Within 80 multidisciplinary laboratories, the UGA is developing outstanding research at national and international level. The UGA offers a wide range of training courses, from bachelor to doctorate, in close connection with the socio-professional environment to promote the integration of its students.
Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)
621 Avenue Centrale, 38400 Saint-Martin-d'Hères
Key Activities in Research and Developement
Biomedical engineering, Life science, Social sciences /health economics
Key Activities in Corporate Innovation
Pharma, Med Tech, ICT, Diagnostics, Imaging, Nutricion
Key Activities in Business Creation
Incubation, Technology Transfer, Business coaching
Key Activities in Education
Entrepreneurship training, Technical faculties, Medical faculties, Healthcare professional education/training