Naked Juice, Azusa, Calif., has opened two new direct-store-delivery centers in Sacramento, Calif., and Seattle, which are “key markets for Naked Juice,” said company Chief Executive Officer Monty Sharma. Sales in Sacramento have increased six-fold since the operation began in January, and have increased 50 percent in Seattle since opening in May, the company said.

The company also announced last month that it has formed a new Science Advisory Board consisting of five scientists/ professors from top universities, each specializing in a different area of research. The company says the board will assist in research and development by sharing ingredient trends and research findings.

Advisory board co-chairs are Daniel F. Farkas, emeritus professor and past department head at Oregon State University, who specializes in food process and engineering technology and food preservation; and Ronald Wrolstad, emeritus distinguished professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University at Corvallis, who is a specialist in chemical compositions of foods and their relationship to quality, and use of anthocyanin pigments from edible plants as food colorants. Board members include Alyson E. Mitchell, assistant professor and food chemist at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, who specializes in food chemistry, toxicology, the impact of diet on metabolic systems and overall health; and the occurrence of flavonoids and flavonoid metabolites in foods and biological tissues; Mary Ann Lila, professor of plant physiology at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, who is a specialist in the identification, characterization and efficient extraction of chemopreventive phytochemicals from plants, bioactive properties of certain flavonoids and the benefits of consuming flavonoid-rich foods and beverages; and Rui Hai Liu, associate professor at the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, who is an expert in the health benefits of phytochemicals in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, functional foods for disease prevention, health promotion targeted at cancers, cardiovascular disease, aging and inflammatory diseases and the screening of natural products.