The International Smoothie Week

I haven't even published the PomegraNet yet and already people are asking me about the smoothies I mentioned lately. The International smoothie week, seems to be a one company promotion - The big J, not yet a pomegranate player but full of interesting information to read coming from the UK the capital of bottled smoothies (except maybe Iceland). Law in the UK allow to sell in-store fresh packed non-pasteurized juice which is forbidden in many countries like the U.S. and Israel because health-safety issues. Most of the world still consume more smoothies made-by-order than bottled.

It seems that the definition of smoothie is not clear enough. I think there should be a clear definition for 100% fruit smoothie to give it an advantage. Current definitions still sometimes use yogurt or milk as ingredients, but the lead definition today is a thick drink made by the whole fresh fruit (preferred non-concentrate) with all its nutrition. Mostly it's a blend but not necessarily. I like it because it feels more fruit-like. You can't see through most fruit, they do have fibers inside. Smoothies are not clear as most of the juice that sold nowadays. It's the real thing.

According to Mintel report UK smoothies market was growing by no less than 523% to reach £134 million in 2006 with consumption growing to 34 million litres of smoothies last year - enough to fill almost 14 Olympic size pools, up from just 6.3 million litres in 2001. While at the same time, the U.S. smoothies market was $2 billion from made-to-order and packaged smoothies, up more than 80 percent in the last five years, with more than 4,000 retail locations reported in the U.S. last year.

The pomegranate seems to catch well in this market. The latest product by Crussh, the UK's largest smoothie bar chain is a super blend containing pomegranates.

Jamba: New pomegranate smoothie accounted for about 7% of total sales

With more than 630 stores around the U.S., smoothie chain Jamba, Inc. reported first quarter record revenues of $89.4 million, primarily attributable to smoothie and juice sales. Management said Tuesday during an analysts' day presentation that new all-fruit smoothies have been the most successful product launch in the company's history, and that a new pomegranate smoothie accounted for about 7% of total sales in the quarter.

As a great believer in the worldwide transition into the smoothies drinks that has been a bit slow coming into the U.S., I like this news a lot, but I would like to see more pure products and I'm disappointed to see on Jamba's website the list of ingredients of their Pomegranate Paradise™ smoothie: Pomegranate Juice Blend [Apple Juice (from concentrate), Pear Juice (from concentrate), Pomegranate Juice (from concentrate), Citric Acid, Fruit and Vegetable Juice for Color, Natural Pomegranate Flavor with Other Natural Flavors], Frozen Strawberries, Frozen Mangos, Frozen Peaches [Frozen Peaches, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)], Ice.

The pomegranate brand sells, but the consumers should get the real product with not more than a couple of additives at the most unless they ask for it. The reason for Jamba's long ingredients list might be the yet high price and scarcity of the fruit, but I believe this should be changed.

Pomegranate was the fastest-growing flavor in new nutraceutical beverage, 2006

A new report finds that the Pomegranate was the fastest-growing flavor in new nutraceutical beverage launches whilst orange was the most common flavor with over 6% of all launches in 2006 containing it.
Additional key findings from the report:

• 'The nutraceutical soft drink market is expected to reach a value of $10.3bn in Europe by 2010. It is expected to be worth $9.9bn in the US.
• Asia-Pacific is the most innovative region for nutraceutical soft drinks. 36% of product launches were in the region in 2006.
• Fruit drinks was the largest category in terms of share of nutraceutical launches with 28% in 2006.
• The most common product positioning amongst launches in 2006 was providing energy with almost a quarter of launches claiming this function.' - This finding clearly puts the pomegranate at a different category claiming important potential health benefits.
• A trigger for companies to enter the nutraceutical drinks market was the decline in the carbonated drinks market. Such, is the recent Coca Cola acquisitions and new launches.

The full 101 page report cost USD$ 1,910.00. Can be found here.

Who wants to be a Pomegranate?

Funny enough, it seems that fruit (organizations) are standing in line to be 'the new pomegranate'. We heard about the Watermelon, the Brazilian Acai, then the Mangosteen and today the Pear. There are many discussions about the next trend, but pomegranate is becoming more than a trend. It is now hard-to-bit role model for fruit that is not only physically attractive but also tasty and most importantly healthy, backed with unusual medical research. Sales are still growing with new pomegranate products coming almost daily.
Seems like there is a room for a few fruits in the super-fruit bowl, it's only natural that other fruit will be healthy too but it's important to look for the scientific evidence. We need to distinguish between potentially healthy ingredients and medically proven products.

New Pomegranate Juice with Reduced-Sugar Vs. Research that Found the Pomegranate Sugars Healthy

According to press release published today, Old Orchard Brands claim to introduce First-Ever Reduced-Sugar Pomegranate Juice for the U.S. market. The new juice features 75 percent less sugar than the leading pomegranate juice sweetened using Splenda(R) no-calorie sweetener.

Marketing trick? naivety? or value product?
Still early to say but:
Last August, the lead pomegranate researcher, Professor Mickey (Michael) Aviram of the Technion Faculty of Medicine in Israel whom I was honored to meet at his lab, published his surprisingly findings, that the sugars contained in pomegranate juice – although similar in content to those found in other fruit juices – did not worsen diabetes disease parameters (including blood sugar levels) in the patients, but in fact reduced the risk for atherosclerosis.
“In most juices, sugars are present in free – and harmful – forms,” explained Aviram. “In pomegranate juice, however, the sugars are attached to unique antioxidants, which actually make these sugars protective against atherosclerosis.”
I'm looking forward to future research to reveal more about the issue.

Research: Pomegranate Products Effective Against Virus and Bacteria

To quote from the authors: "Our findings indicate that POM Wonderful pomegranate juice products may have widespread implications in the treatment of potentially pathogenic microorganisms."
The pomegranate products showed inactivation of virus and destruction of bacteria with effective results on: E.coli B, cavities, staph infections, food poisoning and inhibition of the spread of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The research was conducted by a team lead by Milton Schiffenbauer, Ph.D., a biology professor at Pace University using 100% pomegranate juice, pomegranate juice concentrate and POMx liquid extract (pomegranate polyphenol extract), all made from the Wonderful variety of pomegranate grown in California. Each product showed different effect.
Although we should not forget that this is still an early research, we should all note that this is another important research funded by POM Wonderful this time in cooperation with Pace University. I believe that POM research funding not only makes the fruit world-wide fame but also validates its health benefits.
[Via Pace]

Fresh Start

Pomegranates took me around the world to meet so many great people, companies, and cultures. Many of you got used to receive news and info from me and now you ask for more. I decided to share with you some of the info I collected and still collect together with my thoughts. Let's see what happens. Maybe a small pomegranate net will start here.
As I'm sure that very soon most of the key pomegranate market people will visit the blog (as you are already my friends) I would like to ask you to feel free to comment and suggest.