SUPERFRUIT

Superfruit is a marketing term first used in the food and beverage industry in 2005. Superfruit has no official U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) endorsement.The designation of a fruit as a superfruit is entirely up to the product manufacturer.

Resulting from a deliberate business strategy of a manufacturer to bring together marketing, science and potential health value to consumers, a superfruit product is specifically designed in manufacturing and marketing.

Keys to marketing a successful superfruit product include the native fruit qualities, scientific evidence supporting a potential health benefit, marketing, protection of intellectual property and developing a strategy to attract consumers. Combined in the right way, these elements may allow a fruit to achieve "critical mass" as a superfruit.

To date, superfruits have been developed mainly as juices, but began in 2007 to appear as single piece products or as ingredients for functional foods, confectioneries andcosmetics. Current industry development includes applications for creating novel consumer products, such as energy drinks, dietary supplements, and flavors with nutrient qualities, e.g. fortified water.

Although used increasingly in new food and beverage products, superfruits have not been defined by scientific criteria that would allow consumers to objectively assess nutrient value and potential for furnishing health benefits. Consequently, the term superfruit is used liberally to include a growing list of fruits having sparse scientific evidence for being "super" other than being relatively unknown to common consumers.

nurnajwa (p)