Personalised nutrition — the tailoring of dietary and supplement recommendations to an individual’s unique biology — has moved from research concept to commercial reality faster than almost any other area of nutritional science. Driven by advances in nutrigenomics, microbiome profiling, and wearable metabolic monitoring, the field is reshaping how brands and consumers think about supplementation.
The Science Underpinning Personalisation
Individual variation in nutritional response is well established. Genetic polymorphisms affecting nutrient metabolism — such as the MTHFR C677T variant that impairs folate conversion, or BCMO1 variants that reduce beta-carotene to vitamin A conversion — mean that population-level dietary recommendations are suboptimal for a meaningful proportion of individuals. Pharmacogenomic principles now apply with increasing precision to nutrition.
The gut microbiome adds another layer of individualisation. Landmark research, including the 2015 Weizmann Institute study by Zmora and Segal, demonstrated that postprandial glycaemic responses to identical foods vary dramatically between individuals in ways that are predictable from microbiome composition, meal timing, and sleep patterns — but not from standard nutritional metrics. This finding fundamentally challenged the concept of universally applicable dietary guidelines.
Nutrigenomics and Direct-to-Consumer Testing
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has made nutrigenomic profiling accessible at scale. Panels typically assess variants in genes related to vitamin D metabolism (VDR, GC), omega-3 fatty acid conversion (FADS1, FADS2), caffeine metabolism (CYP1A2), antioxidant capacity (SOD2, GPX1), and lactose/gluten sensitivity. The clinical utility of acting on these variants through supplementation is well established for some — methylated B vitamins for MTHFR heterozygotes — and more speculative for others.
Microbiome sequencing services, typically using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing or shotgun metagenomics, can identify dysbiosis patterns and guide prebiotic and probiotic selection. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), once limited to diabetic patients, is now used by metabolically healthy individuals to optimise meal composition and timing — generating highly actionable data for personalised carbohydrate and supplement protocols.
Regulatory Considerations for Personalised Products
The EU regulatory framework for personalised nutrition supplements is evolving. Custom-formulated supplements produced for named individuals may fall outside standard food supplement regulation and into the scope of pharmacy or medical nutrition legislation, depending on the nature and extent of personalisation. Brands operating subscription-based personalised supplement services must carefully assess whether their product and service model is captured by Directive 2002/46/EC, Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 (foods for specific groups), or national medicinal product law.
Health claims remain subject to the same authorisation requirements regardless of the personalised context. A supplement personalised to a genomic profile cannot carry claims that exceed what is authorised for the ingredient at the dose used. Safety documentation — including a full PIF and where applicable a CPSR — remains mandatory for EU market access.