"We know that wellness trends are on the rise and - partly because of Covid - people are more aware than ever of the links between nutrition and health.
"They are taking more interest in their own immunity, their own cognition - and clearly mental health if getting more and more airtime.
"So we're looking to really see how we can tap into those trends."
VitaKey specialises in precision delivery of nutrition, which is an emerging area of research.
"It seeks to deliver the right nutrients, in the right amount, to the right part of the body at the right time."
VitaKey was co-founded by Dr Robert Langer, a professor at MIT and co-founder of Moderna, one of the first Covid vaccine developers.
"He's a pretty impressive guy," Swales said.
VitaKey's methods are based on technology licensed from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and developed at the Langer Lab, the largest academic biomedical engineering lab in the world.
"So, we're looking to partner with the best of the world in these things," Swales said.
VitaKey could bring benefits to people's health and wellness, first by stabilising the nutrients, and then delivering them exactly where they were needed, she explained.
"The technology doesn't change the nutrients' structure but it ensures the nutrients are stable and then they deliver the right amount to the right place at the right time in the digestive tract. This all means that the consumers realise a real health benefit."
This delivery method also eliminated wastage, Swales said.
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"So you don't have to give so many - because they're going to get killed in the process, which is typically what happens with probiotics."
Two of Fonterra's probiotic strains have been recognised as being in the top five globally.
VitaKey's technology would help enhance their value, Swales said.
"Our Research and Development Centre in Palmerston North is home to one of the largest dairy culture libraries in the world – we've got more than 40,000 different strains there."
VitaKey's technology would stabilise and improve the delivery of some of these probiotic strains and deliver them to parts of the body where they would be most effective, Swales said.
"So they won't get killed by our own natural bacteria which tends to kill these things before they can be effective."
To do this, VitaKey will leverage technology out of Robert Langer's lab - a lab which NASA may also use to deliver probiotics to astronauts on their planned mission to Mars.
"So we're really excited about working with VitaKey. It's a great opportunity to add even more value to our probiotic IP and to our farmers' milk," Swales said.
"And we're going to learn how to work differently - these are world-leading scientists, so there's a lot we can learn in terms of how they think about R&D."
Fonterra aimed to "make nature better" by combining New Zealand milk with VitaKey's technology, Swales said.
"In this way, it will make our products appeal to the growing health and wellness consumer segment and really drive our Active Living business globally."
