By Kimberly J. Decker, Contributing Editor
If you’re anything like most Americans, you know you should be eating more fruit. According to HealthFocus International’s 2009 “U.S. Trend Study," 9 out of 10 adults believe it’s important to get their nutrients from foods naturally rich in vitamins and minerals—like fruit.
Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, reported in 2010 that from 2000 to 2009, only four states increased overall fruit consumption, and the proportion of adults meeting Healthy People 2010 targets for fruit intake actually fell slightly, but significantly, from 34.4% in 2000 to 32.5% in 2009.
Mother Nature couldn’t have custom-ordered a better “poster food" for healthy eating than fruit. With great taste, variety, nutrition and eye appeal, it has everything we claim to want. But for whatever reason, we’re not eating as much as we should.
Product developers can turn that tide by treating fruit as the hard-working ingredient it is. As Kristin Girard, principal food scientist, Ocean Spray Ingredient Technology Group (ITG), Middleboro, MA, says, “While the whole-body health benefits associated with fruit are well known, the benefits of fruit ingredients extend beyond their health credentials to give food manufacturers a powerful marketing message"—and a powerful formulating tool.
Healthy halo on overdrive
The most-powerful part of fruit’s message is health. Promotional groups and commodity boards lean on it heavily as they sell their stories to the public. For example, Jeff Manning, chief marketing officer, Cherry Marketing Institute (CMI), Lansing, MI, calls antioxidant-rich tart cherries an “American superfruit."
Blueberry partisans also seek the superfruit spotlight. The berries’ presence on an ingredient statement says “‘wholesome’ and ‘natural,’" claims Thomas J. Payne, industry specialist, U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, Folsom, CA. “Consumers view blueberries as a value-added, healthy ingredient" linked to heart health, cancer prevention, improved eyesight and better memory.
The cranberry scores its own wellness points not just for antioxidants, but for proanthocyanidin, or PAC, a compound in cranberries that has an anti-adhesion effect on bacteria like uropathogenic E. coli.
But that’s only a taste of the healthful attributes of fruit. In fact, it’s hard to find a fruit that doesn’t boast about it’s own nutritional advantages.
Fresh isn’t always best
Even dried fruit is healthful. Industry professionals know this, but consumers tuned to the drumbeat of “fresh is best" might be more skeptical. But fresh isn’t always best—especially not for manufacturers. Kevin W. Holland, Ph.D., product developer, Tree Top, Inc., Selah, WA, points out that fresh fruit, though sometimes less expensive than processed, can have “the worst shelf life." Diced fresh fruit requires storage below 40°F and thermal or chemical measures to prevent browning.
Yet the public may be more positively disposed to processed fruit than we think. In March 2011, CMI surveyed 800 consumers about their relative interest in a variety of foods that included dried and frozen fruit, but no fresh fruit. And consumers ate them up. “When it comes to forms, dried fruit has almost unlimited potential for ingredient usage across channels; frozen has greatest potential for growth in baked goods and juice for superfruit blends," Manning says.
Ingredients aplenty
Advances in postharvest science, processing technology and ingredient design have given industry more value-added fruit ingredient options. “New developments are making it more straightforward to add fruit ingredients to products than ever before," says Girard.
But as the selection grows, so, too, do the difficulties of matching ingredient to application. “As fruit ingredients can play many roles in formulations—sweetness, color, flavor, piece identity, antioxidant delivery and so on—the choice really depends on the product," Holland says.
Dried and dehydrated fruit ingredients are versatile choices. Water activities (aw) range from 0.1 to 0.7, and textures vary “from chewy and soft at higher moisture levels to crunchy at the lowest," says Holland. Because water can move quickly from a product base to its dried-fruit inclusion—or vice versa—“it is important to match the aw of the fruit to the application," he notes. “Otherwise, moisture migration may cause detrimental changes in the product."
Payne points out that dried blueberries, at 11% to 18% moisture and an aw of 0.5 to 0.6, are “useful where low moisture activity is required." Freeze-dried blueberries, with moisture levels of 2% to 3% when unsweetened and 9% to 14% when sweetened, are another valuable option, especially when it comes to fruit-size maintenance. Osmotically preserved blueberries, made by slowly vacuum-infusing the fruit in a solution of syrup and stabilizers then drying the product to 40% moisture and an aw of 0.50 to 0.87, provide yet another option.
