Until recently, dark purple acai berries did no more than color the occasional smoothie. Though the fruit's nutritional value makes the blueberry look silly, it’s found primarily in the Brazilian Amazon and has been slow to catch on in the US.

As of yesterday, acai is headed for the big time. Confident in the fruit's high concentration of anthocyanins [1], protein, fiber, omega-9 and omega-6 fatty acids, the Canadian natural foods group SunOpta [2] announced that it will distribute acai pulp harvested by Sambazon Acai [3] to food and beverage manufacturers throughout North America.

SunOpta expects acai to generate up to $1.5 million (US) in the first year of sales. Meanwhile frozen acai pulp can be purchased at many health food stores and whipped into that smoothie [4].