Infusion Of Health Message Is Good For Grape Sales

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

The California Table Grape Commission deserves recognition for its willingness to encourage research of high quality. In the end, this means taking a risk that, sometimes, researchers will not find the results the grape industry might hope for. But only by allowing researchers to publish the results, come what may, can the research have credibility or the industry attract the best researchers.

Of course, the grape industry has been fortunate as most of the research has, in fact, pointed to the possibility that grapes offer many positive health benefits.

This is very important, as this kind of research represents the opportunity for the produce industry to use health as a lever to increase consumption in a way that existing research has not really allowed. If you look at industry promotions such as 5-A-Day or the Fruits & Veggies More Matters program, they are based on a general thesis that eating more fruits and vegetables offers health benefits.

This is what the preponderance of the evidence shows, but this fact has not been sufficient to motivate increased levels of consumption. There is a reason to believe that this is, at least in part, because the proven benefits of increased produce consumption are too amorphous, too vague, to motivate behavioral change.

Is the benefit actually from eating more produce in and of itself, or is it that eating more produce displaces other, less healthy foods? And what exactly is the benefit? How much longer, on average, will a person live if he or she consumes a produce-rich diet? How much less likely is he or she to get cancer? Have heart disease? Experience a stroke?

There are no clear answers to any of these questions, and probably never will be. It is extremely difficult and expensive to do controlled experiments in which we can measure how a dietary change over a lifetime impacts mortality. Most of the studies that we have leave open questions of causality. Even if we can establish that people who eat produce-rich diets live longer and healthier lives, it is very difficult to distinguish if it is the produce that causes this effect or if people with good attitudes toward health eat more produce and do other things such as exercise — and these other things lead to the positive outcome.

The kind of research the California Table Grape Commission is funding — focused on specific benefits of consumption of a specific item — holds the potential to motivate consumption in a way more generalized studies never could.

At the same time, the research points to the challenges ahead for the fresh industry. After all, a lot of the buzz concerning the benefits of grape consumption has focused on resveratrol and red wine. Other research has involved grape powder or other grape products — all non-fresh items.

Fresh produce has enjoyed a healthy image; and indeed, many studies have questioned the value of supplements, suggesting that nutritional benefits may be complex and dependent on the interplay of numerous factors and thus not easily amenable to isolating in one supplement. Yet, it still is not obvious the research will establish that fresh is better than canned, frozen, dehydrated, beverage or other product variants. Will table grapes be better than wine, raisins, powdered grapes, etc.? These points are not trivial; table grapes can come from limited places at a given time, whereas grape powder can come from anywhere.

For now, though, thanks to the California Table Grape Commission, we are presented the tantalizing images of grapes as a snack chock-full with benefits most only guessed at. And there is something extraordinary about the fact that produce in general, and grapes in particular, draw from the earth, the water, and the sun a panoply of riches, and that life in humans can be strengthened by drawing on the elements of life that find their way into fresh produce.

For the industry, these efforts are a model to be emulated. Instead of just selling what we have always sold, these efforts are ways of identifying previously unknown benefits to start to sell anew. And, in the grape industry, where new varietal development proceeds apace, this research raises the question of whether new varietal development, in addition to focusing on horticultural and flavor advantages, could also focus on enriching health benefits. After all, if we are going to market with a health message, won’t it be worth developing grapes that justify even stronger and more specific health messages?

Grapes that are both delicious and offer specific health benefits will appeal to supermarkets and consumers alike. It is a sure-fire route to better sales.