Puratos Introduces New Fruit Fillings With Wild Berries

18 Feb 2014 --- With the new Topfil range of fruit fillings, Puratos introduces the superior taste of wild berries to its bakery, patisserie and chocolate customers. The Topfil range includes up to 60% of wild fruit sourced directly from the Baltic forests. Consumer tests have shown that consumers are more willing to purchase products that contain wild berries rather than cultivated berries.

In addition, sensory taste panels show an outspoken preference for the taste of wild berries as they offer a fuller flavor. In response to these trends, Puratos has introduced the Topfil range of wild berry fruit fillings, which includes flavours of: blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries and Wild Berries, which is a mixture if raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

Wild berries as a bakery goods ingredient is a growth category, according to research from Innova Market Insights. In Western Europe for example, the global cakes market – specifically pastries & sweet goods product launches tracked with wild berry types - grew by 39.4% between the years 2009 and 2013, with a 29.5% growth in North America.

These berries grow in abundance in the Baltic forests, where they are handpicked of the wild bush during summer, when these berries produce their fullest flavor. Next, they are processed at the Puratos state-of-the-art factory in Latvia into fruit fillings with a fresh fruit content of up to 60%. Because wild berries are 100% natural, they have a fuller, more intense and more natural taste than cultivated berries, which contain more water resulting in a diluted taste.

Thanks for their full flavor of the wild, Topfil fruit fillings offer an array of advantages for both customers and consumers. Customers can enjoy a natural product with year-round availability, as well as full traceability and a product that is guaranteed natural. Also, because Puratos is right at the source, it can offer a superior product at a competitive price.

For consumers, the Topfil range offers a wild and superior tasting product, which is preferred over cultivated products, as market research has indicated. In addition, there is a new market trend for patisserie with wild berries, which is perceived as new and unique.

Puratos is an international group, which offers a full range of innovative products, raw materials and application expertise for artisans, industry, retailers and food service customers in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. The headquarters are located on the outskirts of Brussels (Belgium), where the company was founded in 1919. Today, the company’s products and services are available in over 100 countries around the world. In many cases, they are produced locally by our subsidiaries.

Berries such as blackberries have been gaining in popularity as health and nutrition have become a top priority for consumers. In the family of ‘superfoods’ the blackberry itself is rich in antioxidants and other powerful nutrients. Its flavour profile and complexity is also what drives its appeal.

Blueberries have also been largely recognised globally as a superfood. Valued for its high levels of antioxidants, nutritionists strongly recommend the addition of blueberries to a consumer’s diet. The berries are also a good source of vitamin K and they contain vitamin C, fiber, manganese and other antioxidants. Studies have shown that participants who ate three or more portions of blueberries and strawberries a week had a 32% lower risk of a heart attack compared with those who ate berries once a month or less.

“Blueberries are a fantastic choice as one of your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day,” explained Alison Hornby, a dietician and British Dietetic Association (BDA) spokesperson. “They are low in calories and high in nutrients, including phenolic compounds with an antioxidant capacity significantly higher than vitamins C or E.”

By Sonya Hook