From marsh to market

October 2007 – the American fall, almost Halloween and Thanksgiving, leaves of red, orange yellow and some still green adorn the countryside, pumpkins are piled high on the porches of wood-shingled houses, autumn wreaths and multi-coloured corn cobs hang on their doors, and shallow ponds with floating blankets of red berries glisten in the autumn sun.

It is the middle of the cranberry harvest season in Massachusetts USA and I was fortunate to join an international media tour to the home of the cranberry as the sole representative of the Australian business food media. There were also representatives from US, French, German, Italian and Japanese trade press as well as consumer media, representing newspapers, magazines and television from Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Japan, Mexico and Puerto Rico; more than 40 in total.

A native berry – a food icon
The cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is native to North America, along with the blueberry and Concord grape. Long used by the Native American tribes for both food and medicinal purposes, it was adopted by the Pilgrim settlers in Plymouth Massachusetts and was likely part of their Thanksgiving meal to celebrate the first successful harvest in the new colony, along with that other American native, the turkey. Roast turkey with cranberry jelly or sauce has become synonymous with Thanksgiving celebrations in the USA and in more recent times with Christmas celebrations in Australia.

Originating in the north east of the American continent, the cranberry is now grown commercially in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington State and parts of Canada. The particular blend of soil type, climate and underlying geology means that this berry will probably never be able to be grown in Australia.

Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc currently has around 70% of the world market in cranberry products. These are predominantly juices, sauces, fresh and frozen cranberries, sweetened dried cranberries (SDC, eg Craisins®) and snack mixes, plus a range of SDC derivates, concentrates and powders for the food and pharmaceutical ingredients. The market for cranberry products has expanded significantly in recent years with Ocean Spray now the largest producer of shelf stable juice products in the USA, and co-packer of a significant portion of Nestlé juice products in that country. In Australia, SPC Ardmona produce Ocean Spray products under licence, using cranberry juice concentrate and frozen cranberries produced by Ocean Spray in the USA. The products of the Ocean Spray Ingredient Technology Group are all manufactured in the USA and sold in Australia by their agent Fruitmark.

The harvest
Cranberries grow on a trailing woody low lying vines vine in sandy/clay wetland areas called bogs or marshes. Fresh cranberries were originally hand picked, a laborious undertaking. Cultivation of cranberries began in the 1800s with the growers’ cooperative formed in the 1900s. The first innovation was a wooden ‘comb’, moved through the vine in the direction of growth and which more efficiently collected the berries than hand picking. On display at the Cranberry World Museum at Edaville, the original headquarters of Ocean Spray Cranberries, was the equipment and processes used for cranberry farming and harvest since the beginning of cultivation. Cranberries for the fresh market are still ‘dry harvested’ although the metal collecting combs can now be wheeled through the fields.

Wet harvesting however is the showpiece of the cranberry harvest. It is made possible by the properties of the cranberry fruit and has allowed for the economical large scale cultivation and harvesting necessary for the cranberry processing industry. The cranberry has four ‘air sacs’ containing the seeds which allow the cranberry to float. At harvest time a field is flooded to a depth of 45 cm from a reservoir and interconnecting network of waterways and piping. After the flooding, the water reels or ‘eggbeater’ enters the pond, churns the water and loosens the berries, which then float to the surface. The berries are corralled in one part of the pond, and then pumped into waiting trucks for delivery to the receiving station. At the receiving station, a range of quality checks is carried out then the trucks are emptied, by tilting them around 45°, an impressive sight indeed. After preliminary sorting and cleaning at the receiving station the cranberries are transferred to a nearby processing plant, in this case from Carver to Middleborough, MA just inland from Plymouth.

The processing
Due to the seasonality of harvest, the relatively limited growing area of the cranberry and the country- and worldwide distribution of cranberry products, all cranberries are initially processed in plants close to the growing areas. The main initial processes are juice extraction and concentration, or bulk freezing for further processing throughout the year into valued added products, particularly the specialty ingredients. In the case of juice and sauce products, it makes for commercial sense to ship concentrates and frozen berries to processing plants close to the major national and international markets where the various blends are produced.

Cranberry juice and other products are known for their vibrant red colour. It came as a surprise therefore to realise that, as with blueberries, the flesh is white, only the skin is red. Also surprising was the variation in colour of the cranberries being harvested. White cranberries are harvested in August and the red colour develops during the subsequent months. Colder temperatures will result in more evenly red cranberries. There are at least 10 varieties of cranberries grown, hence the concentrates need to be blended to balance colour and acid during the juice manufacture.

SDC and other ingredient products are produced using a patented process which results in their even deep red colour. BerryFusions™ fruit are either infused with an appropriate concentrate (blueberry) or topically coated with a natural flavour system (strawberry raspberry, cherry, mixed berry, orange and mango. Purees, powders and white and red concentrates from depectinised filtered juices are also manufactured.

The research
There has been considerable research into the composition of the cranberry and possible health benefits due to its exceptionally high antioxidant and proanthocyanidins (PAC) content; the latter showing evidence of impacting bacterial adhesion.

Professor Amy Howell from Rutgers University New Jersey, visited the Ocean Spray Headquarters during our tour and provided an overview of the research to date and future directions. Some of the areas being investigated include phytonutrients levels, and the impact on cranberries on urinary tract health (bacterial adhesion), dental health (adhesion of bacteria to teeth and gums), stomach health (including the impact on the adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to the stomach and its role in ulcer prevention), heart health (antioxidant properties), lungs and respiratory tract and cancer. Much of the research is under the auspices of The National Institutes of Health in the USA and its National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (www.nccam.nih.gov). Ocean Spray Cranberry supports these research programs, including via the provision of cranberries and cranberry products. Further information on studies to date is available via www.oceanspray.com/health, while a brochure on Cranberry Health Research Milestones may be requested via www.oceanspraytitg.com.

Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks are made to Ocean Spray Cranberry who sponsored my visit, including but not limited to Marion Burton Associate Manager Ingredient Marketing & Logistics and Kirsten Girard Principal Food Scientist, both of the Ingredients Technology Group (ITG) who kept us so well informed on all things cranberry, and grower liaison guru Irene Sorensen who shepherded us around the cranberry bogs. The title of this article has been ‘borrowed with thanks’ from the presentation which Marion and Kirsten made to the trade representatives during the visit. I also acknowledge Lauren Graham and Vicky Cunliffe of Barrett Dixon Bell UK, the international PR agency for the ITG, who added my name to the list, facilitated the visit and patiently and professionally handled all enquiries over several months.