Partners & Fruit Capitals
Clever’s business model is to work with partners in manufacturing. We prefer partners in the fruit business, either a large integrated farm operator already creating value added products, juicing companies, or an export orientated aggregator. Sometimes Clever will partner with an expert in a discrete component of the processing, often that is a contract bioprocessor or a drying technology service provider.
Clever operates in what it refers to as Fruit Capitals, defined as geographic fruit growing areas with superior biodiversity advantages and an abundant supply of at least three superfruits. Today, Clever is active in North Eastern North America, otherwise known as wild blueberry country, Jalisco Mexico and Tasmania, Australia.
There is a lot of systemic superfruit waste throughout the world. Of course we all know that fruit becomes wasted in the supply chain and at home. Clever targets fruit waste called farm loss. This dominates fruit waste and often reaches 20-25% of annual yield.
The primary sources are fruit farm loss are:
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- Fruit never harvested but rather left in the field when supply contracts are fully completed
- Fruit discarded at sorting for being too immature, too small (something too big), discolored or in a non-perfect shape. Sometimes this is called ‘ugly fruit’.
- An abundance in the supply chain can trap fruit. It happens when fruit is harvested, processed and preserved but due to market conditions has no buyer. In each fruit market, back-to-back high yield years can cause a glut in market ready fruit. Either the old fruit needs to be dumped, or the new fruit isn’t harvested.
Clever strongly believes the only sustainable use of fruit waste are solutions that create a more-than product. A product of greater value than the original fruit. There is no driver for the consumer to buy a less-than product at the volume to material impact the environmental cost of fruit waste. But a product with 5x the potency of the original fruit, could make use of all the world’s fruit waste.
Clever recognizes that often ugly fruit often is packing more goodness than perfectly ripe fruit. Most of fruit’s goodness is in its skin. Ugly fruit, too small or ill shaped has a higher skin to pulp-juice ratio. Ugly fruit is good for you, maybe even better for you than perfect fruit.
Converting fruit waste via bioprocessing can alter the world’s management of malnutrition and poor health of those without enough.
Naturally Scientific Framework
(no mercy for the non-scientific)
Clever calls its technology an Intelligent Fermentation Technology Platform. It is a proprietary multi-stage fermentation process designed to extract and biotransform the goodness of plants, specifically fruit.
Clever’s business model is to leverage superfruit’s polyphenol profile, its ‘goodness’, to produce a rich array of health impacting bioactives. The body uses these bioactives to protect and regenerate.
These bioactives are called metabolites, and some of these are postbiotics. In addition, Clever’s products contain prebiotics and probiotics, critical to the creation of metabolites.
General Health
This trio of biotics together foster better general microbiome (gut) health and protect against inflammation. Inflammation – the secret killer – thwarts the body’s ability to protect or regenerate itself. A defenceless body that can’t properly reproduce is the home of degenerative disease.
Metabolites’ Magic
The health generating power of metabolites comes from the process of biotransformation the food compounds we eat into smaller more easily absorbed molecules. This enhances the absorption of food goodness making it bioavailability for the body’s use. Clever’s fermentation is designed to increase bioavailability and thus potency.
Phenolics – Immunity – Protection and Inflammation
Clever designs its fermentation to produce rich arrays of phenolics to better protect the body from oxidation and pathogens. Phenolics are what the human body produces within its microbiome when it biotransforms antioxidants found in plants and animal products. They are the base of our immunity.
Short Chain Fatty Acids – Cell Regeneration and Feeding the Brain
Clever’s fermentation also produces other arrays of metabolites. Of particular importance are a class known as Short Chain Fatty Acids. Characterized as a wide set of bioactives whose role is creating new cells in the body (1.1b new cells/every day) and feeding the brain.
Fermentation Microbe
Fermentation microbes (yeast, bacteria, enzymes) react with polyphenols to produce bioactives not present in the fruit. Fermentation is design, the selection of superfruit and microbes will drive different combinations of metabolites that will align to specific health problems.
The wild blueberry should create a valuable cognition nutraceutical. The highbush blueberry might create an equally valuable diabetic aid.
What’s NEXT in SYNBIO
What do you think the ‘apple a day keeps the doctor away’ can do? Tomorrow’s answer will depend on which apple variety from which farming biodiversity region, and which microbes. We won’t be able to create metabolites from food compounds not present, but we will be able to ‘bend them like Beckham’ and create designer microbiome modulation.
There is likely a limit to what we can accomplish with superfruit. Whether it is Clever or another smart product company, there is so much room to help people. Mood should be easy. Anything metabolic like heart, cardiovascular, blood sugar, cholesterol and diabetes should be manageable. Probably most arthritis problems can be defeated, maybe crushed.
We think there’s a lot of promise in skin repair, but it will be tough as the skin has its own distinct layer of microbiome. Cognition will have many solutions and evolutions. But the elimination of oxidative stress in the brain will change most people’s trajectory.
We will need to learn a new concept, positive side-effects. Most health conditions related to the same underlying problems. We have spent a century modulating symptoms. When we change to fixing the problem, other problems will be positively impacted.
The super hard organ cancers will be tough to resolve, and we might have to be content with avoidance, not repair. SYNBIO is going to change health, change longevity, change humanity.
All you want, all in one. All at once.
Bluotic World’s First Tri Biotic
Our all-natural, 100% all plant-based, upcycled, fermented wild blueberry ingredient, enhances the bioavailability and potency of the world’s #1 superfruit. It is designed to aid in bringing the body’s microbiome back to balance.
This is a clean biotic ingredient as the fermentation process eliminates any fungicide, herbicide, or pesticide on the fruit.
One of the World’s Most Functional, Wellness Shot Drink Ingredient
Clever has designed a Wellness Shot Functional Drink that’s good for health, good in the glass, & good for the globe.
It’s one small shot for your consumers. And a giant 1st-to-market opportunity for functional beverage manufacturers.