DNA testing start-up DnaNudge has opened its first store in London’s Covent Garden, offering shoppers genetic testing to better understand their dietary needs.
The store, which opened this week, allows customers to participate in an in-store DNA test, taken by swabbing the inside of their cheek with a cotton bud.
The DNA collected is then used to give users a guide to which food items they should purchase based on their genetic predisposition to a variety of factors ranging from risk of obesity, high blood pressure or the time it takes them to metabolise caffeine, within an hour of having their cheek swabbed.
Shoppers can take a DNA test for £40 and have their data shared with them via a corresponding smartphone app. For £120, customers are also given a Fitbit-style device, which they can use to scan barcodes on supermarket products, which will flash green if the product is a good match for them genetically or red if the product is bad for them from a DNA perspective.
DnaNudge co-founder Chris Toumazou said: “We’ve struggled for so many years to make health personal and other services have focused on giving problems without solutions. I felt if we could bring [DNA testing] into the consumer world we could use this technology to be preventative and empower shoppers to make changes to their health and lifestyle in a way that demystified genetics to them.
“I wanted to compress science which is difficult to understand and interpret into the difference between biscuits.”
Toumazou said the start-up, which partnered with Waitrose on a year-long trial last year, will expand its technology into the beauty sector by the end of the year, which will also be on offer for genetic testing in its Covent Garden flagship.
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