Haskap berries have a sweet and tangy flavour, more antioxidants than blueberries, and potential for sports performance, longevity and more. But few people have heard of them. Canadian firm Haskalife aims to change that, with a plan to bring haskap berries from Alberta to the world. By Caroline Macdonald.
haskalife founder and CEO Kiren Singh says the main challenge is creating awareness and developing a market. Educating consumers is a first step toward fostering uptake of the haskap berry, both in the Canadian market and further afield.
Singh has a background in corporate finance and energy and sat on the board of Alberta’s Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), an experience that sparked an idea.
“One big strategic question we faced was that Canada is great at commodity crops and has world class agriculture, but we don’t have real value-add and innovation,” she told New Nutrition Business.
Around 2018, she became aware of haskap berries and their potential health benefits. They are particularly high in cyanidin-3-glucoside, or C3G, a wellknown anthocyanin that accounts for 85% of the anthocyanins in the fruit. Diets rich in anthocyanins have been linked to lower inflammation, and research suggests they may benefit brain health and protect against type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Hence the ‘superfood’ status of other anthocyanin-rich berries like blueberries, blackberries, açaï and goji berries – and emerging research suggests Canadian haskap berries could belong on the list.
“Both my mother and sister died of cancer around that time and that got me thinking about food as more than nutrition, but as preventive as well,” she said. “I can only describe it as a karmic confluence of events.”
Haskap berries (Lonicera caerulea) grow only in the far northern regions of the world, including in Russia, China and Japan, and have been used in traditional Japanese medicine for centuries. In Canada, the University of Saskatchewan’s Fruit Program licensed a handful of varietals for commercial planting in 2007, setting the stage for wider commercialisation.
developing a new market
Singh’s original intention was to plant on the family farm, but instead she chose to partner with Prairie Hill Farms in Alberta, which she describes as visionary in its decision to plant haskap berries at a time when they were relatively unknown. It now has over 100 acres dedicated to them, but what makes it really unusual is its on-site processing facility, which includes freeze drying and high pressure processing (HPP) equipment, plus solar-powered freezer capacity for 175,000 kilograms of berries.
“What I realised was we didn’t have a supply problem,” she said. “There was no demand. I thought, how do we create demand for this product?”
About two years ago, Haskalife started selling a proprietary blend of several varietals in formats like powder sticks and juice shots via its website and in major Alberta grocery stores, including Safeway and Sobeys, priced at CA$25 ($18.20/€15.50) for a pack of 10 fourgram sticks, or CA$5.99 ($4.36/€3.70) for the 60ml juice shots, each with only one ingredient, or as part of a two-ingredient blend with beetroot. Singh recommends mixing the powder with yoghurt, into smoothies or on cereal, or simply into water.
balancing health benefits & taste
The company’s pure haskap product is a blend of berries developed to optimise flavour as well as nutritional content, selecting those varietals with high anthocyanin content, and a balance of tart and sweet flavours. The berries are freeze-dried and processed using HPP technology straight after harvest to preserve both flavour and nutrition. The shots contain around 200mg of anthocyanins, and powder stick packs around 100mg of anthocyanins, with dosage determined by quantities identified as potentially beneficial in existing clinical trials.
“We typically compare them to blueberries because everyone knows what a blueberry is,” Singh said. “When you look at a cross section, you see that deep red-purple flesh on the inside as well as on the outside, while a blueberry is clear on the inside. With haskap berries, the anthocyanin load is from both the flesh and the skin.”
ingredient potential
The company has its sights on the B2B ingredients market as an even bigger opportunity for growth, as it provides everything that clean label formulators – and consumers – are looking for in one ingredient: functional health benefits, flavour, colour, and no preservatives or other additives.
Singh has started showcasing the products alongside prototypes in other formats, such as gummies, at trade shows, including at IFT in Chicago and the upcoming SupplySide Global in Las Vegas, where she hopes to connect with food, beverage and nutritional supplement firms that could incorporate Haskalife ingredients in their products.
By-products have upcycling potential, too. With the pulp left over from the juicing process, the company extracts the remaining anthocyanins via a nonsolvent process for use in standardised nutraceuticals. A further by-product from that process is a 60% fruit fibre, which still contains around 2% anthocyanins.
“It is an insoluble fibre you could add along with inulin or another soluble fibre that’s good for that GLP-1 crowd as well,” Singh said
putting haskalife to the test
What’s more, researchers are studying the company’s blend to identify health benefits that could be specific to Haskalife products. This is a potential point of differentiation if others decide to commercialise the berries, but it could also help grow consumer awareness, and the market for haskap berry products as a whole.
“Anybody can grow it, and I encourage people to grow it,” she said. “Anybody can put powder in a bag, but the ability to show benefits is with our specific varietal blend.”
Singh says she sees two main groups of target consumers: those focused on longevity and healthy ageing, who are looking for anti-inflammatory effects and cognitive benefits; and an active nutrition group, looking for sports performance and recovery benefits.
The Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) has co-funded a clinical trial to test Haskalife’s blend on cardiovascular and cognitive markers in women aged 35+, with results expected next year. “We really want the clinical study to showcase what this can do,” Singh said. “Being able to make claims is going to be really important as a validation step in the US market as well.”
international markets
The company is focused on Canada for now, but the aim is to get the ingredients into other companies’ formulations, which it hopes will allow it to expand throughout North America and beyond.
“As we grow in the ingredient space we will also be able to advertise this internationally and sell everywhere,” said Singh. “We are not a small mom and pop five-acre operation. We need to find an international market
This article references insights from Is 2026 the Year of Creatine Innovation?, New Nutrition Business, Volume 31, Number 4, January 2, 2026 (ISSN: 2977-6791, Online). The full article is available to subscribers at www.new-nutrition.com.