Ocean Spray Announces Partnership With Canomiks to Accelerate Cranberry Product Innovation; Katy Galle and Dr. Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk Comment
BOSTON, MA - Some of the most useful medicines can be found right there in the produce department. To prove this notion, Ocean Spray Cranberries has formed an innovative partnership, leveraging food and beverage technology expert Canomiks’ AI-based technology platform to test and certify the biological efficacy of cranberries.
“This is an exciting initiative from our Emerging Science team intended to accelerate discovery research and study the benefits of bioactive compounds in the cranberries, supporting our belief that food is medicine and consuming a diet rich in plant bioactives, such as those found in cranberries, can help support health including benefitting heart health,” said Katy Galle, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.
Canomiks utilized its genomics, bioinformatics, and 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, according to a recent press release.
Ocean Spray provided concentrate and fruit extracts containing naturally occurring cranberry bioactives, and Canomiks applied its exclusive IP and groundbreaking technology to test and validate the efficacy of these components, discovering that the cranberry's support of heart health and overall blood pressure maintenance pathways align with previous clinical trial results.
“The ar
ea 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,” said Dr. Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Canomiks. “We are thrilled to further this research with Ocean Spray and our work with Plug and Play.”
Canomiks’ trials demonstrated the way in which cranberry juice consumption aided in the improvement of blood pressure. This partnership, through Ocean Spray’s existing partnership with the incubator Plug and Play, allows the company to further validate the superfruit nature of cranberries.
These results also build upon Ocean Spray’s recent collaboration with Brightseed, a relationship that leveraged Brightseed’s AI platform, Forager, in order to analyze and profile the phytochemical structure of cranberries.
As consumers place health and immunity-boosting offerings top of mind, these findings could be a sure-fire way to boost the cranberry category.
