Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous in 2025, and the latest industry it has transformed is the food and beverage sector. Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly demanding more from their functional food and drink products, and manufacturers are always on the hunt for the next breakthrough ingredient.
Now, manufacturers are using AI to discover and profile new bioactive ingredients, predicting their health properties based on large databases of similar molecules. This AI revolution is accelerating functional ingredient discovery, making formulation faster and easier than ever.
One 2021 paper in Frontiers in Genetics1 contends that artificial intelligence is accelerating bioactive discovery, making ingredient formulation faster, more efficient and more cost-effective. The paper, funded by Nuritas, notes that despite the high potential of AI in ingredient discovery, ingredient manufacturers are lagging in adopting artificial intelligence for a variety of reasons. As a result, ingredient suppliers and formulators that adopt AI early may develop significant competitive advantages.
References:
1 Doherty A et al. “Artificial intelligence in functional food ingredient discovery and characterisation: A focus on bioactive plant and food peptides.” Frontiers in Genetics, vol. 12 no. 768979. Published online November 19, 2021.
