Tropical Ingredients Pique Interest

The balmy tropics are a thriving source of intriguing ingredients that enable the design of distinctive foods and beverages. iTi tropicals, importers of tropical fruit purées, juices, concentrates and individually quick frozen (IQF) pieces, notes a growing interest in two tropical fruits, tamarind and acerola.

The tamarind fruit tree, a distant cousin of the string bean and a member of the pea family, produces beanlike, irregularly curved fruits. These bulged pods are filled with a juicy, acidulous, brown or reddish-brown pulp, which is a good source of nutrients like potassium (375 mg per 100 grams), phosphorous (33 to 110 mg per 100 grams) and calcium (35 to 170 mg per 100 grams).

According to Don Giampetro, vice president, sales: The pulp is very sticky, making the fruit difficult to process. This can limit the availability of acceptable product. Our tamarind processor is fully approved by the FDA, which ensures that our tamarind purée meets the agencys stringent cleanliness requirements for imported products.

Tamarind purée possesses a pulpy, dense consistency, dark-brown color, and a sweet-sour and fruity flavor with a pleasant, tartaric-acid note. Packed aseptically, the ingredient has a 2.0 to 4.0 pH and approximately 20°Brix. The purée can supply flavor and mouth-feel to beverages, pungency to curries and chutneys, and color and flavor to sauces like ketchup, barbecue, Thai and Indian. It is also useful as a souring agent in Worcestershire sauce. Tamarind purée can be made into a tasty standalone drink, providing a tea-like character when mixed with a pinch of lime, says Giampetro. Other applications include marinades, salsas, jams and frozen novelties.

Acerola (Barbados cherry) fruits are round to oblate and cherry-like, but with three lobes. The bright-red fruit is thin-skinned with a very juicy, acid-to-sub-acid pulp. High in vitamin C, the fresh fruit typically contains about 1,500 mg vitamin C per 100 grams. Adequate vitamin C intake is linked with numerous health benefits, including the prevention of iron-deficiency anemia. Research indicates that fruit drinks high in vitamin C increase iron absorption up to 60%, compared with iron uptake without the presence of this vitamin.

Our all-natural, frozen acerola purées are high in ascorbic acid, and many food processors are looking at them as a natural means of providing or improving the vitamin C content in their products, says Giampetro. The single-strength purée minimum 6.5°Brixcontains a minimum of 800 mg vitamin C per 100 ml, while the 40°Brix concentrate supplies 5,000 mg vitamin C per 100 ml. The ingredients have a pH of 2.8 to 3.0, are orange-red colored and possess a very tart, delicate flavor with apple notes. In addition to enhancing nutrition, acerola offers flavor and acidulant properties to applications like beverages, dressings, marinades and gummy confectionery.

The tamarind and acerola purées are GMO-free and kosher.

iTi tropicals, Inc.
3371 Route 1, Suite 209 
Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 
Phone: 800/223-5484 
Fax: 609/987-0252 
E-mail: [email protected]