Foods like potatoes and tomatoes may be mainstays of the European diet nowadays, but it is easy to forget this was not always the case. Both have their historical roots in South America and ventured across the Atlantic on the ships of early explorers.
As for the cranberry, the red fruit native to North America and Canada has gained great attention in parts of Europe in the last decade, most notably in the north.
Assumpta Casals, of Bösch Boden Spies, Ocean Spray ITG’s distributor, explained to FoodNavigator.com that the UK is traditionally the first and fastest growing European market for a new ingredient; there, cranberries have gained tremendous popularly.
In Germany, too, cranberries were not well known a decade ago, even though other red berries have formed part of the traditional diet. Hamburg-based Bösch Boden Spies has been working there for 12 years, and it is now one of the major European markets.
However France and Spain, the markets for which Casals is responsible, are a different story. There, there is no tradition of cultivating and eating red berries; soft fruits like peaches and strawberries are better known. Where there is a berry culture, for instance with blackcurrants (cassis), these tend to be picked from the wild.
Moreover, southern Europeans are more familiar with sweet fruit tastes like peach and apple, whereas cranberries have a hard accent and are relatively acidic. This calls for the establishment of a positive behaviour pattern.
The cranberry snowball
Despite the challenges, Casals is confident that cranberries will make an impression on southern culture. She estimates it could take three to five years to build the market there, and a few years more in Spain.
She described interest in cranberries as “like a snowball coming from the north”.
Communicating on cranberries
However building that both consumer and industry support does that take considerable effort.
“If you don’t have the culture, you have to do a lot of education work.”
Part of that education revolves around the health benefits. Indeed in France, the 2004 approval of a health claim that cranberries are able to reduce the amount of certain E. coli bacteria from sticking to urinary tract walls is helpful; the other health message surrounding cranberries is on their antioxidant content.
Moreover, the presence of the Ocean Spray brand in juice products sold in supermarkets can be useful in introducing the taste of cranberries to southern Europeans.
Articles and photographs in magazines that talk about the health benefits, as well as culinary uses for cranberries, are also important. They can capture the imagination for using eye-catching cranberries in a variety of ways, including baked goods and salads.
Speaking with industry is somewhat easier since manufacturers are actively on the look out for new ingredients.
The berry fusion ingredients, which are cranberries infused with the juice of other fruits like strawberry, cherry and orange can also help with the technological side of putting fruit into products, such as baked goods.
Using an orange infused cranberry can lend a product an orange taste, but without the problem of actual orange pieces browning during processing and affecting the taste.
In addition, Casals drew attention to the year-round availability of berry fusions.