Jun 13, 2023Blue Diamond and Brightseed partner to discover benefits of bioactives in almonds
Blue Diamond, an almond marketer and processor, and Brightseed, a bioactives company, have partnered to discover the health potential of nonpareil California almonds.
The partnership will inform Blue Diamond’s health innovations and programs, including consumer education initiatives to link almond consumption with specific health benefits.
Utilizing AI
Brightseed explores bioactives through its AI technology, specifically its proprietary AI, Forager, which profiled Blue Diamond’s whole natural almonds and identified 188 predicted bioactive compounds with potential to impact several areas of human health, including mental wellness, metabolic health and immunity.
“As an almond-focused grower cooperative and an innovation leader in almond based ingredients and consumer products, we are thrilled to collaborate with Brightseed to gain a deeper understanding of this unique superfood,” Kurt Waananen, senior director of R&D at Blue Diamond said, “Almonds are already well-studied, but this collaboration gives us a deeper understanding and new ways to view future exploration of nutritional benefits and clinical studies.”
Despite extensive research on the nutrients within almonds, the results from this partnership suggest there are additional bioactive compounds in almonds that may impact human health in new ways.
“At Blue Diamond, we closely monitor trends and conduct consumer research to understand how people overall feel about their food, diet, and eating and drinking habits,” Sarb Dhanjal, senior director of Consumer Insights at Blue Diamond Grower said. “We’ve found that consumers today want to lead healthier lifestyles but find it difficult to prioritize nutrition as a daily habit. The Global Future of Food Survey by McKinsey & Company confirms that consumers worldwide desire to eat better, but nearly half struggle to find the right way to do so.”
The science
“Science has long known that bioactives are essential, health-driving components within plants, but pinpointing their underlying mechanisms of action has been a largely intractable problem for the food, health, and nutrition industries,” Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and COO at Brightseed said. “Our work with Blue Diamond enables Forager to tap into a global food staple and illuminate the almond health story for consumers worldwide. This is an important leap or the industry to champion food and functional ingredients as powerful and accessible modalities for precision nutrition for proactive health.”
Brightseed and Blue Diamond will be assessing options for further research to expand on the scientific understanding of how almonds contribute to human health, including to new areas previously unattributed to almond consumption. For more information on the partnership, read Blue Diamond’s press release.
