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Catriona looked no further than her passion for food and nutrition when deciding what career to pursue. After studying Food & Human Nutrition at university, she became a nutritionist at Kellogg's

What's a typical day for you?

It's a cliché, but every day really is varied. A typical day always begins in the best way €“ with breakfast! From there, my day can consist of anything from meetings discussing future brand plans to liaising with external agencies and organising our attendance at healthcare conferences and events.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I like working in a team environment within projects €“ it's always interesting hearing different perspectives. I also really enjoy working on our healthcare professional engagement programme, reaching out to so many different people across the healthcare community. It's great to be working for a global company that produces food products with such a wide outreach in the UK population. It's a huge opportunity to make a difference.

What are the biggest challenges of your role?

The food industry is an extremely competitive environment, but luckily it is one that is relatively stable in the sense that everyone will always need food. However, consumer tastes are constantly changing and evolving, so it's an exciting place to be.

Being a nutritionist in industry means that we can face a lot of challenging attitudes and opinions from many different angles and so communication is key to maintaining a trusted relationship with consumers and stakeholders.

Many people will know Kellogg's for its cereal brands. Why is the company getting involved with digestive health?

We know that fibre deficiency is common in the UK, with eight out of 10 adults not eating the amount of fibre recommended for good health. This means that digestive discomfort is a major complaint in the UK, affecting around 43 per cent of people.

In the first instance, when these complaints are recorded, laxatives are typically prescribed. In England, this amounts to around 15 million prescriptions a year, at a cost of almost £65 million. As more people turn to their pharmacists for advice, and especially with diet and nutrition in mind, increasing fibre intake is a more natural form of relief from constipation and digestive discomfort.

How is Kellogg's working with pharmacy?

In recent years, Kellogg's has become increasingly aware of the important role of pharmacy staff in providing reliable advice and support, particularly when it comes to diet and nutrition. We believe that the hard work of pharmacy staff in communicating health messages to consumers should be nurtured and, as such, Kellogg's prides itself on providing training and resources to support pharmacy staff as health advisors. We believe that a collaborative approach to equip pharmacy staff with the knowledge, expertise and resource to offer sound healthcare advice and to show customers that a simple adjustment to their diet could improve their long-term health is vital.

What are the challenges in raising awareness of the importance of digestive health?

One of the main challenges that we face is that people don't realise that feelings of digestive discomfort aren't normal and that they don't just have to put up with them. Many people have a reactive approach to the problem, turning to short-term solutions such as laxatives, at a huge cost to the public sector.

Addressing the problem and taking positive steps to improve digestive health, such as adopting a healthier diet and including high fibre foods such as All-Bran can make a huge difference, and it is these small changes that need to be communicated effectively.

What can pharmacy teams do to help customers improve their digestive health?

Encouraging small but positive dietary changes on an individual level forms an important part of improving public health on a national scale.

And finally, what would you be doing if you weren't working at Kellogg's?

I would really like to be working as an expert 'foodie' €“ travelling the world, meeting different people, experimenting with different foods and tastes and experiencing the vast mix of food cultures that our world embraces.

I would also really like to work in food education, teaching both children and adults the importance of food and nutrition, as well as the joy that it can bring €“ in my opinion, there's nothing better than sharing a delicious, nutritious home-made meal with friends and family.

As well as all of this, it's my life-long dream to cook with Michel Roux Junior €“ I think he's a genius!