Rainforest Foods Organic Acai Berry includes an exceptionally high antioxidant content. Features a plentiful supply of Omega fatty acids in the same ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 9 found in olive oil. A dietary sensation among top-flight athletes because it is quite simply one of the earth’s most nutritious foods. Acai berry is the small, purple berry of the Acai palm (Euterpe oleracea), a tree native to the Brazilian Amazon region. Acai berry supplies protein and dietary fibre. It also offers Calcium and Iron. Pronounced ‘ah-sigh-ee’, this darling of the superfood scene makes a great basic dietary supplement for almost anyone.
Production
Rainforest Foods Organic Acai Berry is originally a wild plant, the Acai palm is now cultivated by farmers in Brazil, where it grows under rainforest conditions. Acai berry is picked by hand from the topmost branches of the tree. Its high fat content means that it can go off rapidly, so it is rushed to a processing plant once picked. Here it is pressed to extract the fruit pulp. There are several ways to process Acai pulp, but the most preservative of nutrients is freeze-drying – rapidly freezing the pulp then warming and depressurising it to vaporise the frozen water content. This is, naturally, how Rainforest Foods Acai berry is dealt with. The freeze-dried pulp is milled to powder form and packed for transport. Each 500mg capsule of Acai berry powder provides the equivalent of 10,000mg of fruit. It takes over 20kg of fruit to make 1kg of Rainforest Foods Acai berry powder.
Organic Certification
Certified by the Soil Association, one of a handful of organic certification bodies in the UK. These are regulated in their turn by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The role of the Soil Association is to ensure that all foods sold as organic are definably so. It does this by auditing every stage of the supply chain, through growth, export and processing. Soil Association certification – indicated by the Soil Association logo and the EU organic leaf symbol on our packaging – is a guarantee that our customers are purchasing an organic product. All organically-certified products must also carry a certification code on their packaging. For UK companies such as Rainforest Foods this has the format GB-ORG-XX, XX indicating the certifying body. If this is not present, a product is not organic. The Soil Association code on our products is GB-ORG-05.