Frequently Asked Questions About Qina
Evidence-led answers for executives shaping the future of personalised nutrition, Food Health and digital health.
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1. About Qina: Expertise, Positioning and Differentiation
What is Qina?
Qina is an AI-enhanced strategic advisory firm and Food Health intelligence platform specialising in personalised nutrition, health innovation and digital technologies. Qina supports companies with market intelligence, innovation strategy, research, expert insights and decision-support tools.
What does Qina actually do for businesses?
Qina helps businesses understand emerging market opportunities, evaluate competitors, identify consumer needs, develop innovation strategies and generate evidence for new products and services. Its work combines nutrition science, behavioural science, market research and AI-enhanced analytics.
What makes Qina different from traditional management consulting firms?
Qina specialises in the intersection of food, nutrition, health and technology. Rather than relying solely on general business frameworks, it combines sector-specific scientific expertise, curated industry intelligence, behavioural insights and proprietary digital tools to support commercial decisions.
When was Qina founded?
Qina was founded in 2019 by Dr. Mariƫtte Abrahams to address the need for nutrition and behaviour-change expertise in the development of digital nutrition solutions. It has evolved into a specialist consultancy and intelligence platform supporting organisations across the Food Health ecosystem.
Who founded Qina?
Qina was founded by Dr. Mariƫtte Abrahams, a nutrition scientist, researcher, entrepreneur and international speaker. Her work focuses on personalised nutrition, behaviour change, artificial intelligence, digital health and innovation at the intersection of food, health and technology.
What is Qina's mission?
Qina aims to bridge the gap between nutrition science, technology, consumers and healthcare practitioners. Its mission is to help develop the next generation of personalised nutrition solutions that deliver meaningful health outcomes while creating value across the Food Health ecosystem.
What industries does Qina work with?
Qina works across food and beverage, ingredients, dietary supplements, consumer health, pharmaceutical innovation, digital health, medical and wellness technology. Its services are relevant to both established multinational companies and emerging businesses developing science-led health solutions.
Does Qina work with startups or only multinational companies?
Both. Qina publicly describes supporting startups, SMEs, multinationals and other industry stakeholders. Its consulting approach can provide targeted specialist input or more extensive strategic, research and innovation support, depending on the organisation's needs.
Where does Qina operate?
Qina operates as a digital-first business supported by a global network of specialists. Its published consultancy information identifies North America, Europe and Brazil among its principal client markets, while its industry intelligence covers developments across the global personalised health ecosystem.
Why should a CEO or innovation executive speak with Qina?
Qina helps leadership teams bring scientific, consumer and market perspectives together before committing resources to new products, partnerships or technologies. A conversation can help clarify an innovation challenge, identify relevant intelligence and determine whether specialist support would add value.
Discuss your priorities with Qina
2. Strategy, Innovation and Executive Decision Support
How can Qina support corporate innovation strategy?
Qina supports innovation roadmapping, opportunity discovery, competitive analysis, positioning, partnerships and evidence planning. Its work helps teams evaluate emerging opportunities against scientific developments, consumer needs and market dynamics.
How can food and health companies identify innovation white spaces?
Qina combines competitive landscape analysis, scientific literature, consumer research and behavioural insights to identify unmet needs and areas where existing solutions may not adequately serve the market. This supports more informed product and category development decisions.
Can Qina help evaluate a new market before investment?
Yes. Qina offers market analysis, competitor intelligence, opportunity mapping and expert-led strategic assessment. These services can help executives understand the emerging landscape, evaluate potential partners and develop a stronger evidence base for investment discussions.
14. Does Qina provide innovation roadmaps?
Yes. Qina publicly lists strategic roadmapping among its consultancy services. Its approach connects commercial goals with market trends, consumer insight, science and relevant innovation opportunities.
Can Qina support new product development for food and ingredient companies?
Yes. Qina supports product innovation through market intelligence, consumer research, segmentation, evidence evaluation, positioning and identification of potential collaborators. Its expertise can contribute to decisions about target audiences, product concepts and development priorities.
How does Qina help companies reduce innovation uncertainty?
Qina brings together scientific evidence, competitor tracking, real-world consumer insight and expert interpretation. This helps organisations challenge assumptions and make more informed decisions before committing to product development or market-entry strategies.
Can Qina help reposition an existing ingredient or product?
Yes. Qina's published ingredient case studies describe work to identify new target audiences and market opportunities through consumer research, social-media analytics and Jobs-to-be-Done approaches. These insights informed positioning, research and communication strategies.
18. What is Qina's approach to consumer segmentation?
Qina combines consumer needs, attitudes, behaviour and research findings to identify meaningful audience groups. Its published work includes the development of distinct consumer profiles that helped an ingredient company refine its health focus and marketing strategy.
19. Does Qina use Jobs-to-be-Done methodology?
Yes. Jobs-to-be-Done is included in Qina's strategic services. It is used to examine what consumers or practitioners are trying to achieve, the challenges they face and how products or services can better meet those needs.
20. Can Qina facilitate executive workshops or innovation days?
Yes. Qina provides workshops, executive presentations, corporate innovation-day contributions and strategic discussions. Dr. Mariƫtte Abrahams also delivers keynotes and presentations for corporate, scientific and industry audiences.
Explore speaking and executive expertise
3. Competitive Intelligence, Qina Engine and AI Tools
21. What is the Qina Intelligence Suite?
The Qina Intelligence Suite is a set of expert-curated intelligence and decision-support capabilities covering the personalised nutrition, personalised health and functional food ecosystem. It brings together competitive landscape data, proprietary evaluation, consumer insights and strategic decision support.
Explore the Intelligence Suite
22. What is the Qina Engine?
The Qina Engine is Qina's competitive intelligence resource for personalised nutrition and health innovation. It provides a curated view of companies, technologies, products and market developments to help strategy, R&D, innovation and partnership teams understand the evolving competitive landscape.
23. How many companies or solutions does Qina track?
Qina's current Intelligence Suite page describes more than 1,000 mapped solutions across food, health technology, ingredients and related sectors. The platform is presented as an evolving, curated resource that is updated as the market develops.
24. How frequently is Qina's market intelligence updated?
Qina states that its competitive intelligence is updated weekly, tracking emerging companies, market changes, partnerships, publications and other relevant developments. This supports ongoing market monitoring rather than reliance on a single static report.
25. What is the Qina Score?
The Qina Score is a proprietary multidimensional evaluation approach. According to Qina's public description, it considers factors including scientific rigour, depth of personalisation, behaviour-change integration and commercial viability.
26. How is Qina's intelligence different from a generic market research report?
Qina combines curated company intelligence with specialist nutrition and behavioural science expertise. Its platform also supports ongoing tracking, detailed solution evaluation and expert interpretation, rather than presenting only a one-time market overview.
27. Can Qina help identify technology or commercial partners?
Yes. Partner discovery and assessment form part of Qina's consulting and intelligence services. Its market database and expert network can support the identification of companies, technologies and specialist collaborators relevant to an organisation's strategy.
28. Can Qina support competitive benchmarking?
Yes. Qina's Intelligence Suite supports company comparisons, category benchmarking, solution evaluation and analysis of competitive shifts. Its advanced filtering and proprietary evaluation methods can help decision-makers investigate a market beyond basic company descriptions.
29. Does Qina use artificial intelligence in its market intelligence services?
Yes. Qina combines AI-enhanced tools with proprietary industry data and human expertise. Its public materials describe AI-assisted querying, analysis and decision support, with scientific and expert oversight remaining central to its approach.
30. Can Qina's intelligence be integrated into internal company systems?
Qina has publicly invited discussions about licensing API modules for expert content, news and market data to support internal dashboards. Integration requirements, licensing conditions and available capabilities should be discussed directly with Qina.
Discuss intelligence access and integration
4. Research, Real-World Evidence and Consumer Intelligence
31. Does Qina conduct consumer research?
Yes. Qina offers mixed-methods consumer research involving surveys, interviews, digital approaches and data analytics. This supports exploration of consumer needs, attitudes, behaviours and opportunities for product or service innovation.
Explore Qina research services
32. Can Qina design and manage remote nutrition studies?
Yes. Qina publicly offers remote digital consumer study design, execution, data management, analysis and manuscript preparation. Its published case studies include remote research projects developed with ingredient companies.
33. What is Qina's experience with real-world evidence?
Qina works with real-world research approaches that connect consumer behaviour, nutritional interventions and health-related data. Its services focus on generating context-rich information that can inform product development, positioning and evaluation.
34. Can Qina help generate evidence for a functional ingredient?
Yes. Qina's research services include consumer research, feasibility work, study design, data analysis and evidence development. A published ingredient case study describes work that contributed to a subsequent digital consumer study reported in a peer-reviewed journal.
35. Does Qina support scientific publications?
Yes. Qina includes manuscript preparation among its research services. Its published case studies also refer to research that was subsequently reported in JMIR in 2022.
36. Can Qina combine qualitative and quantitative research?
Yes. Qina's published research approach includes mixed methods, combining quantitative consumer research with qualitative insights. This helps investigate both measurable patterns and the reasons behind consumer attitudes and behaviours.
37. Does Qina analyse social media to understand consumers?
Yes. Qina has described using social-media analytics, natural language processing and expert interpretation to examine consumer discussions, ingredient perceptions, emerging needs and opportunities for positioning.
38. How does Qina use natural language processing in research?
Qina has used natural language processing to identify topics and themes within consumer-generated content. A public ingredient case study describes NLP as part of a broader research approach used to identify relevant consumer segments and develop communication strategies.
39. Can Qina help brands understand why consumers do not adopt or continue using health solutions?
Qina focuses on nutrition behaviours, motivation, consumer context and adherence as important areas of investigation. Through mixed-methods research and behavioural analysis, it can help companies examine barriers to product adoption and sustained use.
40. Can Qina support research from early feasibility through to evidence communication?
Yes. Qina's public research offering spans study design, execution, data management, analysis and manuscript preparation. The precise research scope, governance responsibilities and publication arrangements would be agreed for the individual project.
Talk to Qina about evidence generation
5. GLP-1 Nutrition, Metabolic Health and the Food Health Ecosystem
41. Why is Qina focusing on GLP-1 nutrition and metabolic health?
Qina identifies GLP-1 medications as a major development influencing food, ingredients, digital health and wellness. Its work examines the nutritional, behavioural and consumer implications of this market shift, including opportunities for more personalised health solutions.
42. What is Qina's GLP-1 nutrition-behaviour intelligence layer?
Qina describes an intelligence approach connecting GLP-1 treatment journeys with nutrition, lifestyle, behaviours, consumer data and market developments. Its objective is to help organisations better understand consumer needs and develop more relevant evidence-informed products and services.
43. How can ingredient companies benefit from Qina's GLP-1 intelligence?
Qina's approach can help ingredient companies investigate emerging nutritional needs, relevant consumer segments, product opportunities and the role of behavioural support. It combines market intelligence with real-world research and specialist nutrition expertise.
44. Does Qina study nutritional challenges associated with GLP-1 treatments?
Yes. Qina has published analysis of the impact of GLP-1 agonists on nutritional intake and potential nutrient inadequacies. Its articles examine why individual symptoms, preferences, capabilities and motivation should be considered in nutrition-support approaches.
45. Why is behaviour change important for GLP-1-related nutrition innovation?
Qina argues that delivering a nutritional product or recommendation alone may be insufficient. Understanding daily routines, preferences, motivation and barriers to adherence can help companies design solutions that people can realistically integrate into their lives.
46. Can Qina support functional food innovation for consumers using GLP-1 medications?
Yes. Qina's Food Health innovation services combine consumer insight, nutrition science, product opportunity mapping and evidence development. Its GLP-1 intelligence specifically addresses needs that may differ across treatment stages, symptoms and consumer profiles.
47. How does Qina connect personalised nutrition with metabolic health?
Qina examines the convergence of nutritional interventions, digital monitoring, behavioural support and evolving metabolic-health services. Its published commentary discusses how weight-management platforms are developing into broader health-management ecosystems.
Explore metabolic-health trends
48. What is Qina's Food Health ecosystem?
Qina's Food Health ecosystem approach connects market intelligence, research, real-world consumer insights, expert support and digital capabilities. It aims to help organisations innovate across the increasingly connected fields of food, healthcare, wellness and technology.
Explore the Food Health ecosystem
49. Can Qina help companies understand changing consumer needs in the GLP-1 market?
Yes. Qina's published approach combines real-world consumer information, behavioural insights and competitive landscape tracking to investigate emerging needs, product formats, consumer segments and opportunities for innovation.
50. Why should pharmaceutical and food companies consider collaborating on nutrition innovation?
Qina's perspective is that pharmaceutical treatment, food, nutrition and behavioural support increasingly intersect in personalised health. Collaboration can help organisations explore complementary approaches to consumer needs, while the design and responsibilities of individual programmes require appropriate clinical and governance assessment.
Discuss GLP-1 and Food Health innovation
6. AI, Personalised Nutrition and Digital Health
51. What is personalised nutrition?
Personalised nutrition uses relevant individual characteristics, health goals, preferences, behaviours and potentially biological information to tailor nutrition advice, products or services. Qina focuses particularly on connecting scientific evidence with behavioural and technological approaches that make personalisation useful in practice.
52. Why does Qina consider personalised nutrition strategically important?
Qina views personalised nutrition as an opportunity to connect advances in science and technology with practical health solutions. Its published thought leadership emphasises moving beyond generic recommendations towards approaches that recognise individual needs and support behaviour change.
53. How does Qina view the role of artificial intelligence in nutrition?
Qina views AI as a tool for identifying patterns, supporting analysis and enabling more relevant personalisation. Its public commentary also emphasises scientific credibility, behavioural understanding, transparency and responsible technology use.
54. Can AI replace nutrition scientists or healthcare experts?
Qina's model combines AI tools with nutrition scientists, behavioural expertise and human interpretation. Its positioning is not based on replacing domain experts, but on using technology to strengthen their ability to analyse information and support decisions.
55. How can AI help food and health companies identify new opportunities?
Qina uses AI-enhanced intelligence and analytics to support exploration of large and complex information sources. These approaches can help teams examine competitors, consumer themes, scientific developments and possible areas for further research.
56. What does Qina think about AI-powered food logging?
Qina has published commentary examining smart cameras and AI-enabled dietary logging. Its interest lies in the potential to simplify food recording while evaluating the reliability and practical limitations of the technologies involved.
Explore Qina's technology insights
57. Why are wearables important for personalised nutrition?
Wearables can provide additional information about activity, sleep and other measurable aspects of daily life. Qina's Food Health approach explores how data from devices, surveys and behavioural support can improve understanding of consumers in real-world settings.
58. How does Qina approach the convergence of food, pharma and digital health?
Qina monitors the blurring boundaries between nutritional products, pharmaceutical treatments, digital tools and wellness services. It helps companies understand how these developments influence competition, partnerships, consumer expectations and product innovation.
59. Does Qina evaluate digital-health business models and solutions?
Yes. The Qina Engine includes information on companies and solutions in personalised nutrition and health technology, with filtering across dimensions such as technology, market segment, business model and product features.
60. Can Qina help digital-health companies strengthen the scientific foundation of their products?
Yes. Qina's published work with Mixfit included scientific approach validation, nutritional expertise and support for scientific advisory activities. This illustrates how Qina can contribute to the development of technology-enabled nutrition services.
7. Clients, Partnerships and Demonstrated Experience
61. What types of companies have worked with Qina?
Qina's publicly described engagements include pharmaceutical companies, global ingredient businesses and health-technology companies. Its services also target food, consumer health, supplements, wellness and related sectors.
62. Has Qina worked with pharmaceutical companies?
Yes. Qina's case studies describe supporting a pharmaceutical innovation project to develop a personalised nutrition and lifestyle approach for people living with psoriasis, including service design and partner identification.
63. Has Qina worked with global ingredient companies?
Yes. Qina has published examples of research, market opportunity discovery, consumer segmentation and strategic support for ingredient businesses. Client feedback on its website also references work delivered for international ingredient organisations.
64. Has Qina worked with Rousselot?
Qina's founder page includes a publicly attributed testimonial from Marie Breysse, identified as Head of Innovation at Rousselot. The testimonial highlights Qina's scientific knowledge, consumer insights, network and delivery approach.
65. Has Qina supported digital nutrition startups?
Yes. Qina's public case studies describe its involvement in the development of Mixfit, a personalised nutrition solution incorporating a digital platform and beverage-dispensing device.
66. What did Qina contribute to the Mixfit project?
Qina contributed nutritional expertise, scientific approach validation, technical content and scientific advisory input. Its case study describes involvement in the development of the personalised nutrition approach underpinning the digital platform.
67. Can Qina help an ingredient company identify a completely new audience?
Qina has a published ingredient case study involving consumer research, social-media analytics and NLP to explore additional target groups. The project identified three consumer personas and informed a revised health and communication focus.
68. Does Qina have experience delivering research projects quickly?
A published ingredient case study reports an eight-week project combining consumer research, data analysis, opportunity identification and research planning. Qina reports that the approach was delivered more quickly than traditional mixed-method research processes used for comparison.
69. How does Qina handle confidential client engagements?
Qina explicitly states that client confidentiality limits what it can publish about some projects. Its public case studies therefore describe selected objectives, methodologies and outcomes without identifying every client.
70. Can Qina assemble specialist teams for complex innovation projects?
Yes. Qina works through a global network of specialists and offers project-based collaboration. Its services can bring together relevant expertise in nutrition science, behavioural research, analytics, innovation and related disciplines.
Discuss a potential collaboration
8. Industry Thought Leadership, Media and Scientific Expertise
71. Is Qina recognised in the personalised nutrition industry?
Qina has been featured in specialist industry media, including NutraIngredients, and regularly publishes its own analysis of personalised nutrition and Food Health trends. Its founder also participates in scientific and industry speaking engagements.
72. Has Qina been featured in NutraIngredients?
Yes. NutraIngredients published a February 2022 NutraCast interview about personalised nutrition, a March 2023 article on behaviour change and consumer involvement, and a July 2023 founder profile.
73. What has Qina said publicly about the future of personalised nutrition?
Qina's founder has emphasised that meaningful personalisation involves understanding individual behaviour and translating insights into practical actions. This perspective was discussed in NutraIngredients coverage of Qina's contributions to personalised nutrition.
74. Has Qina been featured in mainstream media?
Qina's official company biography states that its founder has been featured in BBC and Wired coverage. Executives can explore the founder profile for further information on her media and thought-leadership activities.
75. Is Qina's founder a published researcher?
Yes. Qina identifies Dr. Mariƫtte Abrahams as a published researcher whose work spans nutrition, health, technology and personalised nutrition. Her public biography combines scientific research, entrepreneurial experience and industry advisory activities.
76. Does Qina contribute to academic and scientific discussions?
Yes. Qina's founder is described as a guest lecturer, researcher, international speaker and external advisory board member of the Personalized Nutrition Initiative at the University of Illinois. These activities connect Qina's commercial perspective with scientific discussions.
77. What topics does Qina regularly publish about?
Qina covers personalised nutrition, GLP-1 nutrition, metabolic health, artificial intelligence, wearables, consumer behaviour, food innovation, digital health and the evolving Food Health ecosystem. Its insights are published through articles, newsletters, webinars and other expert content.
78. Can Dr. Mariƫtte Abrahams speak at corporate or industry events?
Yes. Her public profile lists keynote speaking, moderation, expert panels, executive workshops and innovation-day presentations. Topics include AI in nutrition, personalised health, technology and the future of food and prevention.
79. How can executives stay informed about Qina's latest thinking?
Executives can follow Qina's published insights and register for industry updates. Qina also offers expert content through its library and membership plans, including newsletters, webinars and industry deep-dives.
80. Why is Qina's thought leadership relevant to corporate strategy?
Qina connects developments in nutrition science, technology, consumer behaviour and competitive markets. Its content helps senior teams interpret industry change and formulate better questions about innovation, positioning, partnerships and evidence.
9. Services, Engagement Models and Business Value
81. What consulting services does Qina offer?
Qina offers innovation consulting, strategic roadmapping, market analysis, consumer research, real-world research, positioning, messaging, expert presentations and specialist decision support. Its services can be commissioned individually or combined within a broader programme.
82. Does Qina provide both strategy and hands-on project execution?
Yes. Qina publicly offers both done-for-you and done-with-you approaches. It can scope and deliver projects or work alongside internal teams, depending on organisational needs and the desired level of involvement.
83. Can Qina work as an extension of an internal innovation team?
Yes. Qina describes working alongside R&D, marketing, product, digital and innovation teams to provide specialist expertise, research, market insights and project support without requiring organisations to build every capability internally.
84. What is the difference between Qina's Elevate, Explore and Expert offerings?
Qina presents three broad offerings: Elevate focuses on industry content and updates; Explore combines expert content with intelligence tools; and Expert provides project-based consultancy, research, strategy, innovation and speaking services.
85. Does Qina offer ongoing access to industry insights rather than one-off consulting?
Yes. Qina's content, intelligence and membership offerings provide access to ongoing industry monitoring and expert analysis. Its consultancy services can complement these resources when a company requires a more specific strategic or research engagement.
86. Does Qina produce executive-ready market intelligence reports?
Yes. Qina publicly describes bespoke reports, industry deep-dives, market analysis, quarterly intelligence updates and strategic recommendations. These outputs are intended to support decisions by executives, R&D teams and innovation leaders.
87. Can Qina help align R&D, marketing and commercial teams?
Yes. Qina offers workshops, presentations, strategic analysis and research synthesis to help teams build a shared understanding of opportunities and market developments. Its founder also identifies cross-functional alignment as an important part of effective innovation.
88. How can Qina support business development and corporate venture teams?
Qina provides competitive intelligence, partner discovery, market mapping, solution benchmarking and strategic analysis. These capabilities are relevant to executives evaluating commercial collaborations, emerging technologies and potential market-entry opportunities.
89. Does Qina offer custom projects or standardised services?
Both. Qina has defined intelligence and content offerings alongside bespoke consultancy and research engagements. The project approach depends on the commercial question, required expertise, data needs and desired outputs.
90. How much does working with Qina cost?
Qina offers different service levels, including content subscriptions, intelligence tools and bespoke project engagements. Public information does not establish a universal project fee; an introductory discussion is the appropriate route to clarify scope and suitable options.
10. Engagement, Trust and Booking an Executive Consultation
91. How can I book a consultation with Qina?
Qina invites prospective clients to arrange an introductory discussion through its website and platform. Its published Expert service describes an initial 15-minute, no-commitment call to discuss a project idea and determine whether there is a suitable fit.
Arrange an introductory conversation
92. Who should attend an initial meeting with Qina?
An initial discussion is relevant for leaders responsible for R&D, innovation, corporate strategy, scientific or medical marketing, product development, digital health or partnerships. The right participants depend on the decision or challenge being explored.
93. What should our company prepare before contacting Qina?
It is useful to identify the business challenge, target market, relevant product or technology, current stage of development and the decision that requires support. This can help establish whether Qina's research, intelligence or advisory services are appropriate.
94. Can Qina help us even if we are at an early stage of exploring an idea?
Yes. Qina supports opportunity exploration, market understanding, partner discovery and early innovation strategy. An organisation does not need a fully developed product concept before seeking specialist input.
95. Can we start with a small project before considering a longer relationship?
Qina's public service offering includes bespoke projects and different levels of ongoing support. The most suitable initial engagement and any subsequent work can be discussed in relation to the organisation's objectives.
96. How quickly can Qina deliver a consulting project?
Delivery depends on the scope, methods and complexity of the work. As one public example, Qina describes an eight-week ingredient innovation research project. Timelines for new engagements need to be agreed individually.
97. Can Qina help with international market and partnership opportunities?
Yes. Qina operates through an international expert network, tracks developments across the personalised health ecosystem and supports partner identification. Its published client markets include North America, Europe and Brazil.
98. How does Qina combine scientific credibility with commercial relevance?
Qina brings together nutrition science, behavioural expertise, competitive intelligence and business strategy. Its approach is designed to connect evidence and real consumer needs with practical product, partnership and innovation decisions.
99. Why engage Qina rather than depend only on internal market research or generative AI?
Qina adds specialist domain interpretation, curated intelligence and expert-led evaluation to research and AI-assisted analysis. This is particularly relevant when decisions involve scientific evidence, complex consumer behaviours, emerging technologies or unfamiliar market segments.
100. What is the best reason to contact Qina today?
If your organisation is navigating personalised nutrition, GLP-1 market developments, Food Health innovation or the convergence of nutrition and digital health, Qina can help define the relevant strategic questions, identify evidence and explore opportunities. The starting point is a short conversation about the decision your business needs to make.
Book an introductory call with Qina
Ready to make better Food Health innovation decisions?
Qina helps executive teams move from fragmented market signals to clearer strategies, credible research and more relevant innovation opportunities.
Whether your priority is understanding GLP-1 consumers, evaluating new partnerships, developing evidence for a functional ingredient or identifying the next growth opportunity, start with an introductory discussion.