The Problem With Açaí

Eager to get some of the health benefits attributed to the açaí--a berry imported from Brazil that has been touted for its antioxidants? If so, the Connecticut attorney general and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have a warning--beware offers that sound too good to be true.

The problem isn't so much with the berry itself, although claims of its near-miracle health effects are being challenged. The real danger comes in what might happen to your wallet if you sign up for a seemingly-free trial for an açaí product online.

"If Bernard Madoff were in the food business, he'd be offering 'free' trials of açai-based weight-loss products," David Schardt, senior nutritionist for the center, said in a statement and report released today. "Law enforcement has yet to catch up to these rogue operators. Until they do, consumers have to protect themselves."

The açaí craze got its start in 1999, when brothers Jeremy and Ryan Black came across the berry while on a trip to Brazil and read about its alleged antioxidant benefits. The brothers started an import company, Sambazon, to sell the berry. A story in the August 2008 issue of Condé Nast Portfolio said that sales of açaí products had more than tripled, to $66 million, in the year before the story ran. Big companies like Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and Procter & Gamble were all experimenting with açaí in their products.

For an interactive description of the path the berry takes from the Amazon rainforest to the United States, click here.

by J. Jennings Moss