Rainforest Foods Organic Acai Berry 500mg 120 Capsules

Acai is a small purple rainforest berry, regarded widely as one of the Earth's most nutritious foods. It contains abundant antioxidants, healthy omega fats, amino acids and dietary fibre. It also has a rich, cocoa-and-fruit taste. Acai boosts energy and strengthens the immune system, which is why it has recently become a dietary sensation among world-class athletes. Adding Rainforest Foods Acai berry to your food is rather like eating the fabled Mediterranean diet, in easily-managed form. Rainforest Foods sells the first Acai berry products to have met the stringent requirements of the Soil Association.

The fruit of the Acai palm, or Euterpe oleracea, Acai is a small purple berry. Originally a wild tree, it is produced by local farmers in the Brazilian Amazon region. Acai has been for centuries one of the staples of the local diet, and has only recently been introduced to an export market. 

Rainforest Foods Acai berry is sourced from one of the leading Acai producers in the world. Our producer’s founders discovered Acai during a Millennium-Eve surfing trip, and have since created a FairTrade-accredited supply chain that benefits thousands of local families while protecting the Amazon rainforest through sustainable agriculture. A portion of all profits made by our producer is returned to the Amazon to promote education, provide health care and to enable the protection of the rainforest. Our producer has won major awards for its approach.

Acai berry has a significant nutritional profile, providing Calcium, Iron, protein and dietary fibre. Its Omega 6 and Omega 9 fatty acid content is significant. It is also a potent source of antioxidants. In fact, Rainforest Foods Acai has an amazing ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) score of 50,000 units per 100 grammes. To put this into perspective, red grapes score just 740 on the ORAC scale.

Acai’s high fat content means that it tends to go off much quicker than most fruit, typically within 24 hours. As soon as it is picked it is rushed to processing plants. There are several ways to process Acai flesh, but by far the best is freeze-drying. This involves rapidly freezing berry pulp then warming and depressurising it to vaporise the frozen water content. The result is a powdered product that contains as much as possible of the fresh fruit’s nutrition, in a light and portable form that is perfect for global export. Rainforest Foods Acai is also incredibly concentrated, as over 20kg of berries is processed to produce 1kg of freeze-dried powder.

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. The powder is encapsulated in the UK by a leading GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice)-registered pharmaceutical manufacturer. GMP registration requires rigorous inspection by the MHRA (Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), the government agency responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are safe. Regular GMP audits enforce optimum quality standards in the encapsulation process. Rainforest Foods capsule casings are made from HPMC, a plant-based cellulose material approved for vegetarian and vegan use by the Vegetarian Society, and Halal and Kosher-certified. HPMC is about as biologically neutral a foodstuff as it is possible to find, and the only other ingredient in the casings is water. Read our blog article on the subject for more information. The capsules are 100% pure, using no fillers, binders or bulking agents. Each capsule contains 500mg of powder.