Industry Funding Needed To Support Research

By Jim Prevor, Editor-in-Chief, Produce Business

It is always exciting to discover research that holds out hope that a particular produce item can have real health benefits. When the item is blueberries — an easy-to-eat fruit that fits in with so many convenience trends — the idea of specific health benefits coming from the item holds out the real promise of increasing produce consumption.

Of course, we can’t let the cart get ahead of the horse. Most studies of this type are very small and have not been reproduced widely. Often, they are done on small subsets of the population and their wider applicability is unknown. Sometimes they are just animal research, and whether effects observed in animals will translate to humans remains to be seen.

Rarely do the studies actually go to health outcomes such as morbidity; instead, they look to various markers, such as arterial stiffness, and the impact of such things on mortality and health is still being evaluated.

It is also true that even if an item has some healthful effect, that doesn’t mean it is more healthful than an alternative.

Then, of course, the way items are consumed under study conditions does not necessarily tell us how an item will be consumed in real life. Studies often include portion controls and restrictions on preparation. The same fruit that might offer a net health benefit at a few ounces a day might not offer health benefits at a pint-a-day served in whipped cream.

Yet consumer interest in so-called “functional foods” is very high, and if we can say that steady consumption of Item X will help with Problem Y, it can move the needle on consumption. That is great news but, alas, there is not much evidence any of this will boost overall produce consumption. Kale can be all the rage, but most of the time, consuming more kale means consuming less spinach as chefs mainly look for only one green side dish.

Of course, if we can really get to a prescriptive health message backed by convincing science — “Ten ounces of blueberries a day keeps heart disease away” — then we would probably see boosts in consumption of those commodities, which would overwhelm the substitution effect.

But getting to this point involves very substantial investment. We need to fund studies of hundreds of people in multiple institutions. The blueberry industry has done a great job in pushing this research forward, but we need an industry fund of a larger scale to support this type of research.

Perhaps something that could mirror the Center for Produce Safety, but instead of focusing on understanding the science behind food safety, this “Center for the Understanding of the Health Benefits Associated with Produce Consumption” could serve as a kind of expertise center, ensuring research from various companies and commodity groups is all peer-reviewed and of a scale and type that is meaningful.

By focusing and professionalizing the industry’s health efforts, such a center might accelerate the development of knowledge as to what real benefits increasing the consumption of individual produce items could create in terms of human health.

This would be a breakthrough since we currently have only the vaguest and most general entreaties to offer the public: That increased consumption of produce, with produce substituting for less healthy foods in the diet, will favor better health and longevity. That’s good, but not nearly as effective a marketing pitch as being able to say that eating blueberries reduces your risk of high blood pressure.

Fortunately, although it is great that blueberries have a halo of healthfulness, the key to increasing consumption is probably going to come from playing up the delicious and convenient angle. Packages such as those placed in McDonald’s, which Naturipe developed, are just the tip of the iceberg.

There remain important branding challenges: different varieties, vast geographies, and niche growers, as well as seasonal fluctuations, we are not quite at the point where every child can have a delicious experience every time he or she eats a blueberry.

It will be great when we can prove blueberries enhance health, but people enjoy the deliciousness of candy more than the healthfulness of produce. A focus on growing and marketing consistently flavorful fruit will move up consumption rapidly and keep produce front and center.