Superfruits, such as goji, açai and pomegranate, are in demand as consumers
search for more healthful products.
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| Photo courtesy of Stiebs Pomegranate Products. | Photo courtesy of North American Blueberry Council. | Photo courtesy of Ocean Spray ITG. |
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| Photo courtesy of Ocean Spray ITG. | Photo courtesy of North American Blueberry Council. | Photo courtesy of Ocean Spray ITG. |
Nutrient- and antioxidant-rich superfruits entice consumers to baked products with their healthful appeal.
“Trends can be temporary, but health is something that requires long-term investment” says Kristen Borsari, senior marketing manager, Ocean Spray Ingredient Technology Group (ITG), Lakeville-Middleboro, Mass. “Consumers are continuing to make more healthful choices, not only expecting whole body benefits, but also great taste and value. Fruit remains a popular consumer choice, capable of transforming the image of less healthful products.”
Superfruits offer a high Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) value, a measure of antioxidant activity. Compare the ORAC value of a banana (813) or a pineapple (373) to those of superfruits, such as elderberries (145,000), blueberries (6,520), chokeberries (15,820) and cranberries (9,382). (Source: USDA 2007).
Individual superfruits are being studied for specific health benefits, says Brad Miller, Stiebs Pomegranate Products, Madera, Calif. Pomegranate, for example, has been linked to prostate health and cardiovascular heath; açai offers high omega oils and anthocyanins that attack free radicals and support skin and brain functions; and mangosteen carries xanthones, which are linked to intestinal health and immune system stabilization, Miller adds.
Many superfruits are receiving consumer attention, including cranberry, blueberry, açai, pomegranate, goji, guavasteen, mangosteen, and most recently yumberry, yuzu and noni. Some superfruits that are less well known to consumers include aronia, gac fruit and sea buckthorn berries.
Açai is especially trendy right now, Miller notes. He credits the media, Internet and various product promotions with açai's rise to popularity. Blueberries, because of their familiarity and positive publicity remain a favorite with consumers.
Bakers can add superfruit flavor with or without piece identity to achieve value-added appeal. “With this economic condition we're in today, consumers are looking for ways to reward themselves and their families without spending a lot of money. With that, there is still the health trend,” Miller says. Consumers have the desire to reward themselves, but also want to treat their body right and put the right things into it, he adds. “I think it bodes well for superfruits.”
Fusions
The trendy new way to add superfruits to baked applications is to add fruit fusions. “Fruit is notoriously difficult to work with in bakery applications. The rigors of processing-from thawing to kneading and freezing-often mean manufacturers are forced to sacrifice fruit,” Borsari says. Common issues range from loss of piece identity to color bleed or moisture migration. Fusions allow bakers to avoid these issues as they are highly process tolerant and easy to work with. Ocean Spray offers a line of fruit fusions, which can be incorporated directly into batter and doughs, without presoaking. They are available in mango, orange, blueberry, raspberry and strawberry. The fusions combine a cranberry base with natural fruit flavors, juices, natural colors and sweeteners. The result is a soft, plump fruit piece that maintains its structure. The product offers a 24-month shelf life and is free of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives.
Stiebs Pomegranate Products offers an infused pomegranate aril. Arils are the seeds and surrounding pulp of the fruit.
“We started with IQF frozen and it was feedback from the baking industry that said the frozen and freeze-dried product were good, but the ideal for some bakers was to have something where the moisture content was more similar to dried cranberries, so we began infusing dried pomegranate arils with apple juice concentrate for fruit identity.” The pomegranate product was well received by bakers already familiar with OceanSpray's line of fruit fusions.
Adding superfruits to baked products
Working with superfruits can be challenging. Not only can they be expensive, but because many are native to far away regions of the world, some of the fruits can be difficult to source consistently. Bakers should research before ingredient sourcing to ensure the ingredients meet U.S. standards.
In some cases, bakers only add enough fruit to claim the product includes mangosteen or noni, etc. When consumers see that ingredient listed on the product, they associate it with health, notes Bill Graham, vice president and general manager, flavor division, Frutarom USA Inc., North Bergen, N.J. But, if very low levels of the fruit are included, it might not add much of a healthful benefit.
Using flavors is obviously the most economical way to add superfruits to baked products, but to claim a natural açai flavor, bakers will need to add part of the fruit itself, Graham notes.
Superfruits will experience some degradation of their nutritional profile during the baking process, but how much depends on a variety of factors, from the formulation to the time and temperature used for baking to the manner in which the superfruit is added to the formula. “Whole fruit is going to act differently than a powder that has already been through some temperature holding,” Miller says. But, while the nutritional value may be reduced, it does still exist even after a long temperature exposure.
Many options are available for adding superfruit flavor and fruit identity to baked products, and it all depends on a bakers specific needs. Freeze dried or spray dried juice powders can be used in addition to real fruit in some instances to allow bakers to blend the amount of fruit identity and functionality in a product. When it comes to adding fruit identity, IQF frozen, infused arils and real fruit all are viable options.
In the instance of wild blueberries, “some bakers will incorporate dried wild blueberries as IQF to reduce the issue of color migration. Others think the weeping is a positive issue,” says Tom Rush, director of sales, Maine Wild Blueberry Co., Machias, Maine. “Sugar-infused wild blueberries are preferred where the end product is manufactured from a stiffer batter or mix. Bagels, scones and fritters are good examples.”
The superfruit bakers use can dictate the way it is added. “Açai has about 8 percent meat on the outside of the berry and 92 percent is the seed, so if you think of an avocado with a really big seed, that is similar to how an açai berry is. There is no easy way to deliver that with fruit identity in baking applications,” Miller says. Açai is usually added as a pulp, a puree or a powder. Mangosteen also is added as a puree and goji as a puree or freeze dried powder, although goji berries themselves can be used in baking applications, Miller adds.
Combining flavor and fruit identity might be the most cost effective way to obtain label claims on packaging. “We have a granola bar customer who uses pomegranate products and they have certain price point parameters, so we work with a hybrid of both fruit identity and powder to achieve the functional claim and also manage the price. If we were to use just one ingredient and not the other it would be difficult to meet their targets in terms of fruit identity, fruit taste and budget,” Miller notes.
Benefits of blueberries
For product developers, 2009 could be the Year of the Blueberry because abundant supplies ensure availability and great value, according to the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, San Mateo, Calif. Consumers are well acquainted with the healthful benefits of blueberries, and last year more than 1,300 blueberry containing products entered the market, the Highbush Council reports.
Research links blueberries to brain health, cancer prevention, heart health, urinary tract health and improved night vision, according to Maine Wild Blueberry Co., Machias, Maine.
The book Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life-Superfoods RX, by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, refers to blueberries as “brainberries.” In animal studies, researchers have found blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions.
A study by Jim Joseph, a neuroscientist with the USDA, Boston, found when mice that had been genetically altered to have Alzheimer's were placed on a blueberry diet, they did not experience memory loss.
In a study done by a Cornell University research team led by Dr. Rui Hai Liu, blueberries performed better than selected fruits when it came to a cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay, a way of measuring antioxidant activity inside cells, Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemisty, 2007; 55 (22) 8896-8907.
When choosing blueberries, bakers have the option of cultivated or wild blueberries. Both are available in a variety of forms, including IQF frozen, which are accessible year round.
Popular superfruits
Açai - Small, dark purple fruit of the açai palm of South America
Elderberry - black to grayish-blue berries found in the warmer parts of Europe and North America
Goji - Orange-red fruit of Lycium barbarum, cultivated in China
Wolfberry - the common name for the fruit commercially known asgoji berry
Guavasteen - lime-green, egg-shaped fruit with a soft flesh similar in texture to a pear. The waxy skin is dull blue-green to blue or grayish green, sometimes with a red or orange blush. Native to southern Brazil, northern Argentina, western Paraguay and Uruguay. Crops now are available from California, New Zealand and Australia.
Mangosteen - 2-in. to 3-in. tropical fruit with juicy flesh suggestive of both peaches and pineapples
Yumberry - sweet, crimson to dark purple-red fruit native to eastern Asia, mainly China. Also known as yamamomo to the Japanese, which means mountain peach.
Yuzu - a citrus fruit originating in East Asia, believed to be a hybrid of the Ichang papeda (a species of the genus Citrus with lemon-scented foliage and flowers). It resembles a small grapefruit with uneven yellow or green skin depending on ripeness. Yuzu typically are 5.5 cm to 7.5 cm, but can be as large as 10 cm.
Noni - egg-shaped, yellow fruits up to 12 cm in diameter, with a reportedly unpleasant flavor and odor when ripe.
Gac fruit - a Southeast Asian fruit found throughout the region from Southern China to Northeastern Australia. The round or oblong fruit has a dark orange color when ripe, and is about 13 cm in length and 10 cm in diameter. Its exterior skin is covered in small spines and its dark red interior contains clusters of fleshy pulp and seeds.
Aronia - (also called chokeberry) a small pome with an astringent, bitter flavor. “Chokeberry” comes from the astringency of the fruit. Native to eastern North America and most commonly found in wet woods and swamps.
Sea buckthorn berries - orange berries 6 mm to 9 mm in diameter, soft, juicy and rich in oils, native to a wide area spanning Europe and Asia.
