Döhler Launches Superfruits Solution

This portfolio enables customers to enhance existing products, develop range extensions or new products using these flexible and convenient functional antioxidants either by using the antioxidant juice concentrates, plant extracts or ORAC building blocks.

30/09/08 The DöhlerGroup has developed a new concept in high antioxidant and polyphenol containing fruits. Fruit Active Plus, which was presented at the InterMopro in Dusseldorf, is a portfolio of ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) building blocks, a unique combination of antioxidant juice concentrates and plant extracts.

“Superfruits is a really emerging category where the antioxidant properties can be promoted. FruitActive Plus is our new sub-brand for antioxidant defense which is just comning out now in fruit juice concentrates as well as plant extracts,” Herbert Eickmeier, Marketing Manager at Doehler told FoodIngredientsFirst.com.

This portfolio is claimed to enable customers to enhance existing products, develop range extensions or new products using these flexible and convenient functional antioxidants either by using the antioxidant juice concentrates, plant extracts or ORAC building blocks. Fruit juice concentrates in the range include blackcurrants, cranberry, red grape and pomegranate. Plant extracts include acai, grape seed and peel, green tea and pomegranate.

The company notes that its FruitActive portfolio is supported by the company’s ultra efficient raw-materials management system and strategically located production sites in the world’s most important growing areas. The DöhlerGroup has a large portfolio of premium fruit concentrates, purées and flavours made from blueberry, açaí, pomegranate, cranberry, goji and acerola, as well as the matching custom-tailored product concepts, all of which were presented at InterMopro.

The launch comes amidst an environment of high uncertainty regarding health claims in Europe, as various products go through the European Health Claims procedure. The heart health claim ‘polyphenols contained in this product ensure antioxidant action’ is currently on the CIAA list of claims being made for superfruits, Eickmeier said, but a timeline for its approval by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is still unclear.

The biggest challenge in working with high antioxidant fruits is standardising the ingredient in order to ensure that each drop contains the necessary amount of ORAC level. “In order to make the antioxidant claim you need to ensure that every drop of compound contains at least 1,500 units. We have had to do a lot of work in the standardisation of our compounds, by keeping functionality but also maintaining taste and colour”, Eickmeier said. “This is the challenge with fruit. For example an orange juice branded product can sometimes be more fruity or ripe and the other day more acid. It’s also down to the region and crop,” he added. Maintaining consistency with fruit is not a new challenge, but the ORAC issue has certainly added another element to it.

Döhler also highlighted its new Twister Plus natural apple building blocks. According to the company, when freshly picked apples and processed into fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates, evaporation means that only around 1kg of the highest grade flavours (150-fold) is obtained from 150kg of juice. With the state-of-the-art separation technology, Döhler is able to fractionate flavours into their individual, essential taste-giving components. Depending on the desired taste profile, a tailor-made flavour is subsequently recomposed from them. In this way, the company has developed a broad portfolio of red, yellow and green apple flavours for use in the most varied products and applications. Eickmeier said that with this new process, the yield can be increased from 150 fold to 2,500 fold.

by Robin Wyers