SupplySide West: Digging Into the Superfruit Market

We all know about the supers," as in superfruits and superfoods, and VIRGO helped get the 2011 SupplySide West show rolling on Tuesday morning with a pre-conference workshop on superfruits that included presentations from Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council; Amanda N. Carey, Ph.D., a USDA post-doctoral affiliate in the Neuroscience Laboratory at the USDA-ARS Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University; and Tom Vierhile, director of innovation insights for Datamonitor.

The workshop dug into various aspects of the superfruit category, which continues to expand and diversify. On the table were the very definition of superfruit" including analysis of existing and emerging fruits, the science behind the superfruits including the validity of ORAC scores, a look at the potential for superfruits as brain food," and analysis of the existing and potential markets for these ingredients.

Blumenthal provided a rather comprehensive overview of fruits currently considered super and looked at others that could very well be considered for the category, including cacao (chocolate), luo han guo, rose hips, bitter melon and schisandra.

One point Blumenthal raised was the alleged spiking of vitamin C levels in acerola, camu-camu and baobab. Although these fruits are naturally high in the vitamin, he noted analysis has shown that some unscrupulous ingredient manufacturers might be boosting levels with ascorbic acid to presumably gain an edge on the competition. However, such adulteration only will result in loss of consumer confidence in the ingredients.

Carey focused her presentation on the concept of superfruits as brain food." As we age, neuronal function is often compromised, and her research has looked extensively into how we might be able to help improve mental functioning through dietary approaches. Inflammationor as she called it, inflam-aging"is a key factor in this equation. Her report touched on various ways that superfruits can perform brain housekeeping" to remove cellular clutter, improve synaptic response, foster better brain plasticity" and more.

Rounding out the proceedings was Vierhiles look at consumer dining habits and how they align with the various benefits true superfruits can offer. He tapped sea buckthorn, dragon fruit, yumberry, baobab and camu-camu as showing solid growth potential, and maqui, lulo and borojo as others to keep an eye on in the coming months and years.