Editor's Spotlight: Startup Focus
Global AI startup adds immunity support to personalised nutrition tech amid Coronavirus
London-based Spoon Guru, a technology service which uses AI to provide consumers with food and supplements that meet their dietary requirements, has just added an ‘immune support’ tag to its service to help those who want to support their immune systems through nutrition.
Markus Stripf, one of Spoon Guru’s three co-founders, says the need for this additional service became obvious to him when he saw the huge surge in Google searches for ‘immunity boosting foods’.
“Even before Coronavirus, there was so much demand by consumers for more transparency, whether for medical or lifestyle reasons.
“With Coronavirus now in the mix, it’s even more important that people know the health impacts of what they consume.”
“We saw the huge increase in interest in immunity and people wanting to do whatever the can to ensure they could fight off the virus."
Stripf and his co-founders first brought Spoon Guru to market five years ago as a way to help retailers make life easier for the millions of shoppers who struggle to find the food that meets their dietary needs.
After initially being launched as a free app - which is still free now - the technology was soon integrated into Tesco's online shopping service and from there interest in the technology skyrocketed.
Retailers and public health organisations around the world now use the technology to allow their users to add their dietary preferences to their food searches online, whether that be due to allergy, illness or simple preference.
The new 'immunity support' tag is the newest addition to the service which will no doubt be used by a huge portion of the public during this pandemic.
“People who use the immune tag will be presented with foods and supplements high in zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D, probiotics, antioxidants, essential fatty acids and other nutrients scientifically proven to play a key role in supporting the function of the immune system.”
The entrepreneur adds that a team of nutritionists and health advisers have worked with Spoon Guru to ensure the tag finds foods that are in-keeping with health guidelines and stand up to scientific scrutiny.
“We have ensured to apply the same rigour to these suggestions as we would to something such as gluten free suggestions which could have serious health implication to the consumer if we were to provide incorrect information.”
