Consumers on the Internet: ethical and legal aspects of commercialization of personalized nutrition

Abstract

Consumers often have a positive attitude to the option of receiving personalized nutrition advice based upon genetic testing, since the prospect of enhancing or maintaining one's health can be perceived as empowering. Current direct-to-consumer services over the Internet, however, suffer from a questionable level of truthfulness and consumer protection, in addition to an imbalance between far-reaching promises and contrasting disclaimers. Psychological and behavioral studies indicate that consumer acceptance of a new technology is primarily explained by the end user's rational and emotional interpretation as well as moral beliefs. Results from such studies indicate that personalized nutrition must create true value for the consumer. Also, the freedom to choose is crucial for consumer acceptance. From an ethical point of view, consumer protection is crucial, and caution must be exercised when putting nutrigenomic-based tests and advice services on the market. Current Internet offerings appear to reveal a need to further guaranty legal certainty by ensuring privacy, consumer protection and safety. Personalized nutrition services are on the borderline between nutrition and medicine. Current regulation of this area is incomplete and undergoing development. This situation entails the necessity for carefully assessing and developing existing rules that safeguard fundamental rights and data protection while taking into account the sensitivity of data, the risks posed by each step in their processing, and sufficient guarantees for consumers against potential misuse.

Understanding Consumer Evaluations of Personalised Nutrition Services in Terms of the Privacy Calculus: A Qualitative Study

“…This implies that the adoption of PN largely depends on direct-to-consumer advertising rather than medical prescription. Regardless of the ethical desirability of direct-to-consumer PN applications and the need to regulate this development [21], at this stage it is reasonable to expect that the potential benefits of PN depend on the adoption of PN by consumers.…”

Guide and Position of the International Society of Nutrigenetics/Nutrigenomics on Personalized Nutrition: Part 2 - Ethics, Challenges and Endeavors of Precision Nutrition

“…There is good public acceptance of genetic testing for hereditary diseases [21]. Several studies indicate that there is also a widespread positive attitude among the public toward using genetic tests for personalized nutrition [65,66,67]. Socioculturally disadvantaged groups seem to interpret genetic testing positively [68].…”

“…Use of DTC genetic tests has generated controversy, with online companies offering tests being subjected to strong criticism for misleading consumers as well as for the imbalance between far-reaching promises and contrasting disclaimers [67]. This has led to discussions about the damage that such tests may cause consumers, as well as possible threats to individual autonomy [99].…”

New tools for personalised nutrition: The Food4Me project

“…Consumer attitudes and knowledge of personalised nutrition are also key to translating personalised nutrition into a commercially viable service (Ahlgren et al . ; Poinhos et al . ).…”

“…Amalgamation of such information requires new technologies and an understanding of the ethical and legal aspects of personalised nutrition. Consumer attitudes and knowledge of personalised nutrition are also key to translating personalised nutrition into a commercially viable service (Ahlgren et al 2013;Poinhos et al 2014).…”