Cranberry nutrients put to test in AI Ocean Spray-Canomiks partnership

24 Feb 2022 --- Ocean Spray’s partnership with Canomiks is slated to accelerate cranberry product innovation by leveraging heart health and blood pressure benefits. The research aims to utilize Canomiks’ artificial intelligence (AI) platform to test and certify the biological efficacy of the cranberry.

“This will help us accelerate delivery of healthful and nutrient-dense cranberry products backed by science. The technology helps us ensure that we deliver the appropriate bioactive components in our products,” Katy Galle, senior vice president of R&D at Ocean Spray Cranberries, tells NutritionInsight.

“Continued development of this platform can help the food industry validate that the food or ingredients that they are delivering contain the necessary components to provide the health benefits.”

The relationship with Canomiks comes through Ocean Spray’s existing partnership with the incubator Plug and Play. It allows Ocean Spray to further validate the superfruit nature of cranberry’s biological efficacy.Katy Galle, senior vice president of R&D at Ocean Spray Cranberries. 

Optimizing “groundbreaking” technology
Canomiks used its genomics, bioinformatics and AI-based technology to test cranberry bioactive components called polyphenols to demonstrate that these bioactives can positively influence genomic pathways responsible for modulating blood pressure and blood flow. 

Ocean Spray provided concentrate and fruit extracts containing naturally occurring cranberry bioactives. “Canomiks applied its exclusive IP and groundbreaking technology to test and validate the efficacy of these components, finding that the cranberry’s support of heart health and overall blood pressure maintenance pathways align with previous clinical trial results,” Ocean Spray highlights.

The trials demonstrated how cranberry juice consumption aided in improving blood pressure. Heart health concerns are driven by demands for natural options and holistic approaches.

Food as medicine
The technology helps accelerate understanding of the important food components in nutrient-dense foods or ingredients like cranberry, Galle adds. 

“This nutritional information supports our vision that food is medicine and nutrient-dense fruits like cranberry can deliver important food components such as polyphenols and triterpenoids and how they modulate important physiological pathways to provide beneficial effects such as promoting heart health.”

The platform offered by Canomiks can offer high throughput, screening and validation for the efficacy of food and ingredient bioactives such as cranberry polyphenols.

“This can ensure that we are delivering efficacious and beneficial components in our products,” Gale underscores. 

“The area of food-as-medicine has been explored for many years, and this research is principal in taking a step forward to making it a reality and inform future innovation from Ocean Spray,” says Dr. Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, CEO and co-founder of Canomiks.Cranberries can aid in supporting heart health. 

Utilizing AI for health
The developments build on Ocean Spray’s recent collaboration with Brightseed, which leveraged the company’s AI Forager technology to profile the compounds in cranberries and their impact on human health. The collaboration is part of Ocean Spray’s aim to have the world’s most comprehensive nutritional profile of the cranberry.

A study last year suggested that Ocean Spray’s cranberry juice holds potential in reducing tooth decay.

The company also previously launched Cranberry Seeds, touted to bolster the nutrition of products including baked goods, smoothies or snack bars. 

By Andria Kades