Fazer, Nokia and Nightingale Health join forces for better nutrition and health prospects

Fazer, Nokia and Nightingale Health start a unique collaborative research project to investigate new tools for people to holistically monitor and take better control of their own health. The collaboration brings together the partners’ cutting-edge technologies and expertise from different industries. The research focuses on understanding the effect of diet on work productivity, cognitive performance and quality of life.

Modern work-life puts considerable strain on the performance of our brains: working hours are non-specific and work tasks have become more versatile and abstract. To enable future solutions, Fazer, Nokia and Nightingale aim to increase understanding on holistic well-being and brain health by uniquely combining a specially designed “brainfood” diet, digital biometrics and information from blood in a clinical research setting. The data collected in the study will offer a unique opportunity to analyze the connections between cognition, physiology, sleep quality, stress tolerance and metabolism - and how they can be affected by the quality of nutrition and eating habits.

Bringing digital health, biotech and nutrition together to create impact

Reaching across various fields, each company will contribute their own expertise. Fazer will provide the "brainfood" meals, healthy food designed to be specifically beneficial for the brain and cognitive performance. Nokia will provide the physiological monitoring of stress, recovery and sleep in real life conditions, using Nokia´s connected health devices and advanced cloud analytics. Nightingale Health will measure comprehensive health information from blood samples taken throughout the trial and carry out statistical analysis of the study overall.

Fazer has specially designed “brainfood” meals for the study participants, based on their knowledge of food and nutritional science gained from the Fazer Brainhow programme. “By joining forces with Nokia and Nightingale, we gain an exceptionally wide understanding on the holistic impact of a diet that has been designed to enhance people’s cognitive performance. At its best, this study brings new scientific insights not only for us partners, but also for the whole research community. This study is a crucial part of our Fazer Brainhow programme where we aim to innovate new solutions to help people to maintain and enhance their cognitive well-being”, says Päivi Juolahti, Head of Renewal, Fazer Group.

Simon Longbottom, CTO at Nokia Technologies: "We are delighted to be working with Fazer and Nightingale on this groundbreaking research. At Nokia, we care deeply about the health and well-being of individuals and communities. All volunteers who are participating in the study will have access to our unique digital health products while helping researchers better understand how our diets effect our ability to be healthy, happy, and productive. Ultimately, we will all benefit from the learnings and we look forward to using this insight to deliver even better digital health solutions to customers around the world."

Nightingale Health, a Finnish biotech company, will use their expertise in blood analysis to uncover health insights from inside the body.

“Developing a better understanding of human health is a complex challenge, but it’s typically evaluated from a narrow perspective”, says Nightingale’s CEO Teemu Suna. “To challenge the status quo, we should aim to develop a new holistic approach to monitoring health. One that understands what’s going on inside of us at the molecular level, follows our daily activities, and helps us to see the impact of our diet. A single company can’t achieve this goal on their own, so Nightingale is pleased to partner with Nokia and Fazer, creating a unique joint endeavor that strives to improve health globally.”

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation, is partly funding the multi-partner research collaboration.

Results of the study are estimated to be available by the end of 2018.

Contact details:

• Fazer:
  • Päivi Juolahti, Head of Renewal, Fazer Group
    paivi.juolahti@fazer.com; +358407033480
  • Jussi Loponen, Head of Research, Fazer Group jussi.loponen@fazer.com; +358407329772
• Nokia
  • Jani Kivioja, Head of Digital Health Labs, Nokia Technologies, +358469228804
  • Camilla Ekholm, Media Relations, Nokia Technologies, +358407218345
• Nightingale Health
  • Teemu Suna, CEO, Co-founder, Nightingale Health, teemu.suna@nightingalehealth.com, +358401961669

Fazer Group

Fazer is an international family-owned company offering quality bakery, confectionery, biscuit and grain products as well as food and café services. Fazer operates in eight countries and exports to around 40 countries. Fazer’s mission is Food with a purpose. Fazer’s success, ever since its establishment in 1891, has been based on the best product and service quality, beloved brands, the passion of its skilful people and the Group’s responsible ways of working. In 2016, Fazer Group had net sales of 1.6 billion euros and nearly 15,000 employees. Fazer’s operations comply with ethical principles that are based on the Group’s values and the UN Global Compact.

Makes the world taste good