Aliment Scientific Food · Nutrition · Health · Data

Evidence your nutrition claims can actually stand on.

Independent consulting for food, beverage, and nutrition technology companies that need rigorous science behind their claims — from clinical trial design and biostatistics through FDA/USDA substantiation to AI/NLP-enabled nutrition data strategy.

PhDNutritional Biology, UC Davis
3continents of field & clinical research
15+ yrsacademic, industry & startup science
About

Science trained in the field, applied in industry.

Career timeline

  • 2010–2016Field research with USDA ARS, including a maternal & infant micronutrient supplementation trial in Guatemala and dietary assessment fieldwork at icddr,b in Bangladesh
  • 2016–2017Postdoc, USDA ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center — survey and SOP design for the MILQ study
  • 2017–2019Associate Specialist in Nutritional Epidemiology & Data Science, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne
  • 2019–2023Director of Nutrition & Health Research, Basics/Wild Rose Foods, Portland, including an OHSU-partnered RCT
  • Most recentlyHead of Food and Nutrition Data Science, Edacious PBC — nutrition data science, AI/NLP pipelines, and analytical chemistry

I trained as a nutritional biologist, not a marketer. My work starts with the data and the regulation, not the headline. Over 15+ years that's included field research on maternal and infant micronutrient status in Guatemala and dietary assessment fieldwork in Bangladesh, a PhD and postdoc at UC Davis and the USDA, industry science at Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences in Lausanne, ontology and knowledge graph consulting for health technology applications, and — most recently — leading food and nutrition data science at Edacious, an early-stage startup with an in-house analytical chemistry lab and software that benchmarks nutrient composition against market competitors and daily requirements.

Most nutrition claims don't fail because the science is wrong. They fail because no one built them to survive scrutiny.

Today I work at the intersection of nutrition science, regulatory strategy, and data science, including AI/NLP pipelines that parse and structure food and nutrition data. I'm taking on select consulting projects in claims substantiation, clinical trial design and biostatistics, and nutrition data strategy — for teams that need evidence built to hold up under FDA and USDA review, peer review, and customer scrutiny alike.

Areas of Practice

Where rigor meets the regulatory line.

Scientific Profile

Consulting Facts


Engagement SizeProject-based

Years in Nutrition Science15+
— Field & clinical researchGuatemala · Bangladesh
— Industry & startup science9+ yrs

Peer-Reviewed Publications5
— Incl. Am. J. Clinical Nutrition

Regulatory DomainsFDA · USDA
Statistical MethodsBiostatistics · Epidemiology · ML

Not an FDA-recognized label. A consulting credential summary, formatted like one, because that's the standard I hold claims to.
  • FDA & USDA Claims Substantiation

    Reviewing nutrition and health claims against FDA and USDA requirements before they're made public, including labeling and claims compliance for a food-tech product line.

  • Clinical Trial Design & Biostatistics

    Study design, survey and SOP development, and statistical analysis for nutrition and clinical trials, including mixed-effects models, GLMs, and survey-weighted methods.

  • Nutrition Data Science & AI/NLP Strategy

    Designing and directing NLP and machine learning pipelines that extract, structure, and validate food and nutrition data, including an automated data-labeling agent and a nutrient-composition classification model.

  • Scientific & Regulatory Manuscript Review

    Independent statistical and methodological review of manuscripts, claims dossiers, and grant submissions.

  • Nutrition Innovation Advisory

    Science-first guidance for food, beverage, and nutrition tech teams building new products, drawing on cross-functional work across science, analytical chemistry, product, and software teams.

Selected Publications

Peer-reviewed work.

  • Supplementation of Guatemalan women acutely increases infants' intake of riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12 from breast milk but intakes remain very lowDonohue (Haber), J., Solomons, N., Hampel, D., Shahab-Ferdows, S., Orozco, M., Allen L. — 2020American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
  • A Blood-Based Nutritional Risk Index Explains Cognitive Enhancement and Decline in the Multidomain Alzheimer Prevention TrialBowman, G.L., et al. — 2019Alzheimer's & Dementia
  • A Comprehensive and Holistic Health DatabaseMorine, M.J., Priami, C., Coronado, E., Haber, J., Kaput, J. — 2022IEEE International Conference on Digital Health
  • The Food Pharmacy: Theory, Implementation, and OpportunitiesDonohue (Haber), J.A., Severson, T., Park Martin, L. — 2021American Journal of Preventive Cardiology
  • Limitations of the Evidence Base Used to Set Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Infants and Lactating WomenAllen, L.H., Donohue, J.A., Dror, D.K. — 2018Advances in Nutrition
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