USA – Danone North America has partnered with San Fransisco-based biosciences company, Brightseed, to explore new health benefits in plants using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Brightseed has developed the world’s first artificial intelligence to discover phytonutrients with high potential health impact. Through the partnership the plant-based food maker said that it will leverage Brightseed’s unique AI-powered approach to profile key plant sources for Danone North America to reveal previously unknown health and nutrition benefits.
The companies said that the collaboration will pioneer a new era of scientific discovery of the health benefits in key plant-based ingredients.
Danone-Brightseed multi-phased partnership will begin with profiling soy, a versatile and nutrient-rich whole food ingredient and one of the richest sources of high-quality proteins in the plant-based world.
Brightseed revealed that it is identifying potential new molecular connections between certain compounds present in Danone’s raw soy and newfound health benefits previously unlinked to soy.
The bioscience company’s insights are expected to illuminate the health benefits that may exist in one of the world’s most popular plants and enable Danone North America to accelerate nutrition innovation across their family of brands.
“Brightseed’s artificial intelligence technology gives us deep insight into the plant kingdom, finds nutrients that we know are important for promoting health, and accelerates the validation of these findings,” said Takoua Debeche, SVP Research & Innovation at Danone North America.
“As a leader in plant-based food and beverages, Danone North America values external partnerships that can help us improve and optimize the taste, texture and nutritional aspects of our products, and contribute to our biodiversity vision.”
The partnership comes at a moment when health and wellness are at the forefront of the consumer mindset, the demand for plant-based food is skyrocketing and consumer preferences are evolving as more flexitarians and dairy lovers are including more plant-based options into their daily routines.
Brightseed observes that incorporating a variety of plant-based foods rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and valuable phytonutrients like fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes into a balanced diet can contribute a multitude of health benefits.
“At Brightseed we believe that we’re at the tipping point of significantly activating food for health and wellness. We analyze plants at the molecular level in order to understand the specific roles that nutrients play in the proper functioning of our bodies,” said Sofia Elizondo, Cofounder and COO of Brightseed.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Danone North America as they are equally committed to bringing health through food. Danone North America also believes in the important role that high quality, nutrient-rich diets play in supporting human health, while delivering across brands and products that consumers trust and love.”
Brightseed is indexing the world’s edible plants and their phytonutrients – the small molecules produced by plants that can positively impact the optimal functioning of the human body.
With only less than one percent of existing phytonutrients having been identified or studied, despite their prevalence in diets and traditional usage worldwide, the startup is seeking to unlock the potential health benefits from plants at an unprecedented speed.
Brightseed says that its AI maps phytonutrients to specific human health targets, and the Brightseed team validates new findings with biological and clinical trials.
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