Davis-based Arcadia Biosciences Inc. received the American Heart Association’s “Heart Check” certification for its GoodWheat branded pasta.
Arcadia (Nasdaq: RKDA) holds at least 28 patents for GoodWheat, which is a wheat strain that features higher fiber, fewer calories and reduced gluten compared to traditional wheat.
"Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., and studies show that eating more fiber-rich foods can help foster good heart health," Arcadia CEO Stan Jacot said in a news release.
In recent years, Arcadia has converted GoodWheat from being an ingredient to being a brand in itself.
GoodWheat pasta is made using a strain of high-fiber wheat Arcadia developed over 17 years. Arcadia developed GoodWheat by rapid prototyping techniques, not by gene editing. GoodWheat is not considered a genetically modified organism.
GoodWheat is available on Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and at more than 1,000 retail locations across the United States, including Raley’s stores locally.
The “Heart Check” logo could help support the marketing of a relatively new branded product.
The rollout of the brand has literally been years in the making. Arcadia first signed up a network of farmers to plant GoodWheat in 2018, which was sold under a private brand label. The company began marketing the brand GoodWheat last year. In its packaging, GoodWheat boasts its non-GMO certification and that it is certified kosher and USA Farm Grown.
GoodWheat has four times the fiber of traditional pasta, and still tastes like traditional durum wheat pasta products. The new GoodWheat-branded pasta is a single-ingredient product that comes in five shapes: spaghetti, penne, rotini, fettuccine and elbows.
Arcadia was founded in 2002 as a plant-trait research and development company, but in the past five years it's been transitioning from a research company into an ingredient company, and now into a consumer-packaged goods company using the discoveries of its proprietary research.
