Sunbasket and Diet ID Partner to Deliver First End-to-End Solution in the Food as Medicine Movement

March 14, 2022

New program combines diet quality assessment tools with delicious, dietician-approved meals to help health and wellness managers assist their community in managing and preventing diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sunbasket and Diet ID today announced a partnership designed to provide a complete solution for improving health through better eating. This new collaboration offers employers, government, health systems, payors, providers and other community health managers an opportunity for their members to integrate Diet ID’s digital diet quality assessment and goal-setting tools with the convenience of Sunbasket’s personalized meal plans delivered right to members’ homes.

The partnership follows a pilot program between the two companies that saw participants take a personalized, health-based approach to food as medicine to improve their quality of life. Proper nutrition and a healthy diet are key factors in reducing the risk of chronic diseases, including Type 2 diabetes and hypertension. These conditions are key drivers of population health costs and lower life expectancy. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 47 percent of American adults (116 million) suffer from hypertension and the U.S. obesity prevalence was 42.4 percent in 2017 – 2018. A 2021 study in the journal PLOS ONE found health care costs for obese adults were nearly $1,900 higher each year, compared to their normal-weight peers. Despite the importance of diet for both maintaining well-being and addressing disease within a population – in addition to a plethora of guidance, tools and apps – poor adherence to dietary recommendations remains the norm.

Diet ID and Sunbasket break through these barriers by combining the two critical pieces to create an end-to-end solution: personalized nutrition recommendations paired with delivery of dietitian-approved foods necessary to effortlessly meet dietary goals. Program participants take a one-minute quiz from Diet ID to determine their initial diet quality score and the best path to healthy eating. These recommendations are then integrated into Sunbasket, which provides a range of fresh, chef-crafted food options adhering to the prescribed diet plan. The meal options – ranging from ready-to-heat meals to Sunbasket’s top-rated meal kits – are then delivered right to members’ doors to help them reach their specific nutrition goals. Members will have an opportunity to continually reassess their progress on the Diet ID and Sunbasket program to measure individual achievements, while also receiving updated guidelines as their health improves.

The partnership between Sunbasket and Diet ID will provide those managing population health, including employers, government, health systems, payors, providers and more, an unprecedented ability to improve diet quality and reduce the risk of serious disease amongst their members in a program that is estimated to achieve ROI in excess of 3:1. Sunbasket provides a tool to calculate the program benefits and estimate annual cost savings associated with the improvement in diet quality across the population entered.

“Improving health starts with changing people’s relationship with food. We know from our pilot program that the combination of Diet ID and Sunbasket helps individuals break through behavioral barriers which prevent them from improving diet quality and achieving their health goals without sacrificing taste or ingredient quality,’' said Ajay Gopal, Ph.D., Chief Strategy Officer at Sunbasket. “By integrating Diet ID into the Sunbasket experience, we are able to offer our partners a powerful, rapid way to screen populations for dietary patterns, administer personalized nutrition regimens, and continuously measure program efficacy in health outcomes and cost savings. Our risk-based, measurement-integrated, personalized nutrition delivery solution has not been possible before in the Food as Medicine space.”

This week at HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition, David L. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., CEO of Diet ID, will give a presentation on defining diet quality and measuring success, titled, “The Financial Case for Food as Medicine: The ROI Calculator.” (ID #255) Dr. Gopal from Sunbasket will also be in attendance for those wishing to learn more about the new program and ways for health program managers to measure ROI on food benefits programs.

“This is an exciting partnership with tremendous potential to advance the value proposition of food-as-medicine by directly linking the power of digital assessment and guidance with the delivery of curated, high quality meals, finally making the journey to better eating individualized and effortless," said Dr. Katz. “Sunbasket's ability to create delicious meals that follow strict ingredient and nutrition standards that help people to improve their health through the food they eat makes Sunbasket the ideal partner for this innovation.”

For more information on the partnership, or to request information on participation for a population group, please visit Sunbasket.com/foodasmedicine.

About Diet ID

Diet ID, a Michigan company, utilizes a novel, patent-pending approach to dietary assessment based on pattern recognition, rather than the customary recall. The system, accessible via any web-enabled device, generates a comprehensive assessment of dietary intake - diet type, diet quality (using the Healthy Eating Index 2015), daily servings of all major food groups, and levels of 150 nutrients - in as little as 60 seconds. Available in English and Spanish, the image-based app is ideal for low-literacy populations. For more information on Diet ID, visit DietID.com.

About Sunbasket:

Sunbasket is a meal delivery company on a mission to help people live their healthiest lives, starting with what they eat. Since 2014, Sunbasket has been delivering nutrient-rich, restaurant-quality meal kits, ready-to-heat meals, and healthy snacks right to consumers' doorsteps. Sunbasket meals are crafted by award-winning chefs and dietitians from organic fresh produce, sustainable seafood, antibiotic- and hormone-free meats, and clean ingredients. The company believes food plays a crucial role in wellness and aims to make living a healthy lifestyle supremely easy, sustainable, and delicious. The meal subscription service offers more than 30 new options every week that fit a variety of healthy lifestyles, including Chef's Choice, Paleo, Lean & Clean, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Mediterranean, Diabetes-Friendly, Vegan, and Carb-Conscious.

Press release link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220314005249/en/Sunbasket-and-Diet-ID-Partner-to-Deliver-First-End-to-End-Solution-in-the-Food-as-Medicine-Movement