His path to journalism was an unexpected one. A PhD scientist who had planned to pursue academia or industry, Daniells stumbled into journalism in 2005 after realizing he no longer wanted to do bench research.<\/p>\n
While doing his second postdoc in Montpellier, France, Daniells stumbled across a publishing company covering nutrition and dietary supplements and applied on a whim, despite no advertised job openings. Days later he was offered a role at NutraIngredients. <\/p>\n
Back in 2005 when Daniells joined the company, NutraIngredients was a very different operation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just the news that went out every single day and then went out as a newsletter,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were none of these webinars. There was no video. There was no podcast. There was none of the events that we then subsequently launched.\u201d <\/p>\n
The industry as a whole was not the behemoth it is today and the scientific foundation was far less developed. Daniells recalled being at a show and asking an ingredient company to show him the science behind a product, only to be handed a \u201cprintout of a PowerPoint slide that had two bars on it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Thankfully, the science has advanced considerably, alongside delivery technologies and the way consumers access health information. <\/p>\n
Some conversations inside the industry have proved more persistent. Quality, adulteration and questionable claims remain recurring themes, while regulatory development continue to shape innovation. <\/p>\n
Daniells pointed to the introduction of the European health claims rules in 2006 and US GMP requirements in 2007 as major developments early on in his career. More recently, he said uncertainty surrounding the regulatory pathway for new dietary ingredients remains an important issue. <\/p>\n
According to Daniells, one of the most profound changes in journalism has been the sheer volume of information competing for attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is to figure out what\u2019s really newsworthy and what companies should know about,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
And despite the rise of AI, he is confident there is a continuing role for human journalism. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat AI can\u2019t do is pick up the phone and actually add that context,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cThat authenticity and that personality is where we\u2019re going to win.\u201d <\/p>\n
Looking back, Daniels said the close-knit nature of the industry helped make NutraIngredients feel like home. \u201cAs you get to know the people in the industry, you realize just how special the industry is, how close-knit it is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so I kind of felt like I\u2019d found a home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Two decades after making the unexpected move into journalism, Daniells said his younger self would have been pleased to know he was still covering the industry today. \u201cIf you\u2019d have said to me 20 years ago, you\u2019re still going to be doing this in 20 years, I think I would have been delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n
To hear more of Daniels\u2019 reflections on 20 years at NutraIngredients and his thoughts on what\u2019s next for the industry, listen to the NutraCast above or on your preferred podcast platform. <\/p>\n
To mark the milestone, NutraIngredients has launched a dedicated 25-year anniversary hub<\/a>, bringing together stories and highlights from the publication\u2019s history. <\/p>\n If you enjoy listening to the NutraCast, feel free to leave a review. You can subscribe on Apple<\/a>, iHeart<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His path to journalism was an unexpected one. A PhD scientist who had planned to pursue academia or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,111,139,556,69],"class_list":["post-611538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}