Kaleidoscope: Supporting sustainable food product development for healthy ageing

Malnutrition and obesity are a dual challenge for the older adult population, especially those from lower socio-economic status communities. Age UK estimates that over one million older people in the UK are malnourished or at risk of malnourishment. The Health Survey for England 2022 showed that prevalence of obesity was highest among older adults with 36% of adults aged 55 to 64 and 35% of adults aged 64 -74 living with obesity. There is a significant opportunity to support development of healthy and sustainable foods for all, yet specific challenges and gaps in knowledge exist that have created barriers to delivering successful new products. Nielsen statistics show that 85% of new products fail and Foster & Brown Research states that this failure is due to a lack, and inherent failure, of consumer testing. Kaleidoscope is a service that allows manufacturers (especially small and medium enterprises, SMEs) producing sustainable and healthy foods, to access six consumer insight modules (Consumer attention, focus groups, consumer preferences, consumer attributes, nutrition and claims, and visual communication) to optimise their product for the older adult community (without having to invest long-term in costly expertise and equipment themselves). The healthy ageing accelerator will allow us to realise our commercial ambition and trajectory, developing Kaleidoscope from a collaborative endeavour operating within the University ecosystem to a commercial endeavour via a licensing structure with Twisted Orange Ltd. Kaleidoscope benefits from the rigour of scientific/academic research coupled with extensive food industry experience. Here, we propose three work packages that underpin customer discovery, a pathway to securing our first commercial customer within our primary market and to understand potential adjacent markets. With a goal of informing the development of 1 to 2 key products in the food manufacturing space, supported commercially within 6-12 months of the accelerator. Our activity is underpinned by a Dragon's Den style pitch activity with SME sign ups that are from our target segment around older adult nutrition as well as SME sign ups from adjacent target segments around nutrition across the lifespan. Winners will receive Kaleidoscope packages supporting use cases and market development. The Healthy Ageing Accelerator gives us an opportunity to forward our mission to support a healthy and sustainable food environment for older adults, but also across the life-span, with an ultimate goal of impacting population health and well-being via adequate nutrition.