What is in this article?:
In this installment of Gold Standard, we focus on superfruit ingredients from four companies — companies that have made conspicuous efforts to provide credible science about their products, educate consumers or demonstrate marketing prowess.
By most measures, superfruits are one of the biggest success stories of the industry, beginning to nip at the heels of dairy products as the forerunners of innovation and sales growth. Growing consumer demand for healthy and interesting foods is pushing fruits, with their intrinsic health aspects, to the top of the functional foods market.
For the superfruits like acai, bilberries, blueberries, cranberries, mangosteen and pomegranates, the future looks particularly bright. The number of products using these ingredients is growing exponentially each year. Superfruits or their extracts are being found in a dizzying array of products. Even supplements manufacturers are beginning to utilise antioxidant-rich superfruit extracts in formulations.
Their success appears to be attributable to several factors. One is the science. Companies have seen what published research has done for the godfather of functional fruits, the cranberry, and have understood the desire in the marketplace for foods that play a role in maintaining health. Consequently, companies have made strategic long-term commitments to researching their products, forming alliances with universities and funding private research.
Another success factor lies in the education of the public through public relations campaigns, advertising and the multi-level marketing platform. Industry leaders are making great efforts to reach out to health and food journalists, as well as the healthcare community, with the results of the latest scientific studies.
Such efforts are paving a pathway for all other ingredients, products and platforms that have a healthy aura.
