Kim Fisher, Director of Programs at the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health (IIFH), joined a national group of experts contributing to a new Engineering Research Visioning Alliance report on the future of precision nutrition. The report, Engineering Food Systems to Enable Precision Nutrition, brings together perspectives from academia, industry and government to examine the engineering advances needed to better translate nutrition science into practical, scalable food-system solutions. UC Davis faculty were also involved in the effort, including IIFH faculty member Carolyn Slupsky, and Mars contributed industry expertise alongside other participating organizations.
The report identifies nine research priorities spanning the food system, including preserving nutrient quality through processing, developing more precise delivery systems for nutrients and bioactive compounds, advancing food-as-medicine platforms, building AI-enabled food environments, improving personalized and distributed food production, developing smart packaging, and creating technologies that recover valuable nutrients from food-system waste. It also highlights robotics, resilient logistics, sensing technologies, functional materials and secure data integration as important components of a more responsive precision nutrition ecosystem.
Fisher’s participation reflects IIFH’s role in connecting UC Davis expertise with broader conversations about how emerging food and health science can move toward real-world application. As one contributor within a large multidisciplinary effort, her involvement provides an opportunity for IIFH to help inform the research and translation priorities shaping the future of food and health innovation.
