OBJECTIVES: A new line of research suggests there might be potential for personalized nutrition to prevent non-communicable diseases. This research aims to explore whether consumers are willing to pay for personalized nutrition and until which extent they want personalization.

METHODS: a discrete choice experiment was designed and analyzed in a 7-steps procedure: 1) literature review, 2) pretests and refinement, 3) selection of final attributes and levels, 4) experimental design (using a d-efficient design), 5) survey design (in Qualtrics software), 6) online delivery of the survey, and 7) analysis of the results via a conditional logit model, a mixed logit model and a latent class logit model.

RESULTS: a total of 462 respondents completed the survey. The sample was representative of the adult Spanish population. In both conditional and mixed logit models, the respondents stated strong and significant preferences for higher levels of personalization (p<0.01 for level 2, 3 and 4 in the conditional and the mixed logit) and for the inclusion of the physical activity plan (p<0.01). The WTP was higher when the hypothetical product included advice from a licensed nutritionist (Δ16€/month), however respondents did not get much additional benefit from the higher level of customization (based on an analysis of the gut microbiota, Δ1€/month). The latent class logit model revealed that 1/5 of consumers are interested in highly personalized nutrition (p<0.01 in level 3 and 4), 1/3 would benefit from if the price were low enough, 17% of the adults perceive some value in the advice of professional nutritionists, but not in very intensive levels of testing, and there is not much interest among the remaining adults.

CONCLUSIONS: there might be a private market for high levels of personalized nutrition but only a few consumers would be willing to pay the high costs of testing.