Danone & Brightseed harness AI to uncover health benefits hidden in plants

04 Aug 2021 --- Danone and biosciences company Brightseed – creator of the AI software Forager that maps and predicts the health impact of plant-based compounds – have entered into a partnership. The collaboration will delve deeper into the health potential of various plant sources by pinpointing their potent bioactive compounds.

Brightseed is building the world’s largest plant compound library and Forager is able to predict which compounds exist in various plants and how they impact human health outcomes. 

Forager’s discoveries and insights could usher in a new category of functional foods for Danone to commercialize on a global scale, the partnership envisions.

“Through unprecedented access and open data exchange between Danone and Brightseed, we are breaking down the silos that have traditionally kept the food and health industries worlds apart,” says Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and COO of Brightseed. 

In one single plant, Forager has managed to uncover ten times more bioactives than previously known and several new health areas.Since last year, the two companies have focused on identifying new biological connections between bioactives present in Danone’s raw plant sources and human health functions – coined “the dark matter of nutrition.” In one single plant, in a matter of months, Forager uncovered ten times more bioactives than previously known and seven new health areas.

“Forager is providing unprecedented visibility into the transformative power plants can have on human health,” says Taisa Hansen, senior vice president of research and innovation at Danone Nutricia Research.

“Ultimately our goal is to make this information non-exclusive so that humanity can benefit from this collective wisdom and move faster towards a healthier, regenerative food future.”

A hidden wealth of health compounds
By 2025, Brightseed aims to map all of the approximately ten million bioactive compounds in the plant kingdom according to their health impacts.

These overall efforts will unlock “unprecedented access” to natural compounds for the food, health and wellness industries, the company states.

Bioactives in plants provide significant health benefits for humans, yet currently less than 1 percent of these compounds are known to science. Only 12 plant crops such as corn, rice, wheat, soy, oats and others – account for 75 percent of the global food system. 

“Leading food companies are increasingly interested in providing products that help to nourish and sustain wellness in their customers, rather than products that contribute to disease,” says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University in Boston, US, and Brightseed scientific advisor.

“AI is a promising way to improve our molecular understanding of plants and foods, so that we can find newer ways to address chronic diseases, improve nutrition security, and promote healthy living.”

Edited by Benjamin Ferrer