Nutrition is an area of growing concern but also of increasing opportunity. Food is life and the issues surrounding what consumers choose to eat and drink affect everyone. Concerns grow every day about the nutrition and diet - content of food, labelling and claims, obesity, diabetes, diet-related heart disease and generally poor eating habits. Government, the medical professions, official regulators and special interest groups all have an interest, which means that every food and drink product, ingredient, additive or supplement is under intense scrutiny by all these groups and the media.

That's why the Nexus team comprises experts from the fields of public relations, marketing, branding, issues management and public affairs. These seasoned professionals combine to successfully launch new products into crowded marketplaces; promote and elevate specific nutrients, ingredients and brands to media, the healthcare profession (e.g. doctors, nurses, nutritionists and dieticians, pharmacists), stakeholders and consumers; confront and challenge misconceptions and myths; and manage complex scientific and regulatory challenges affecting how food is produced, marketed and sold.

Since good science drives much of the debate about nutrition, Nexus also has established relationships with some of the leading academic experts and dieticians in the UK, whose expertise adds great value for our clients. We are able to leverage these relationships to forge partnerships with leading stakeholder groups and to provide valuable intelligence about research in the pipeline, upcoming issues and the latest trends. We believe that knowledge is power when it comes to nutrition, so we continually scrutinise scientific research and regulatory developments here in the UK, at a European level and worldwide in order to stay abreast of any changes so that we are in the best position to influence outcomes and effectively prepare our response.

By working with respected nutrition, healthcare and regulatory experts, we are able to inform, re-educate and influence a variety of audiences including the media, the public, regulators, academics and healthcare professionals. If a study is due to be published which is negative towards one of our clients, we utilise our network of experts to:

• ensure that the science is clarified and all audiences understand the results
• put the research into context
• highlight any grounds on which the results may be questioned (e.g. the size of study, nature of cohort, previous contradictory studies)
• provide expert comment on the results.

The result is that we either balance or reverse a story and we have had substantial success at actually persuading journalists that the science is too weak for the story to run.

Our intelligence network also benefits our 'proactive' work on behalf of clients and where independent research is positive in our clients' favour, we are able to capitalise on the data to reach our own objectives in a timely fashion.