As the California Prune Board – representing 900 California prune plums growers and 29 prune packers and considered the largest producer of the best prunes in the world – begins its 65th anniversary year, the Board announces its largest clinical trial ever. Currently, prunes are the only natural whole fruit to achieve an authorized health claim in Europe (for bowel health[1]) and the California Prune Board is committed to the standards that scrutinize the credible health benefits of any food product, as illustrated by the Board’s successful application for a bowel health claim. It is anticipated that the new clinical trials will provide further evidence to strengthen and help explain the link between prunes and normal bone health[2], further elevating prunes’ nutritional and health credentials.
Throughout its 65-year history, the Board has always been proud to assert the premium quality associated with California Prunes, driven by the 150 years farming expertise honed from generation to generation, the optimum growing conditions and the sophisticated state of the art production, harvesting processes and food safety protocols. However, since 1986 the Board’s European marketing campaigns have included the funding of world class, cutting edge, research designed to corroborate the extensive health and nutritional benefits associated with the consumption of prunes, underpinning their position as the original ‘superfood’.
While the California Prune Board has successfully grown its markets to export to 72 countries, the focus has been (and will always remain) on the communication of the US’s unrivalled heritage in the sector and the best in class quality of its crop and nutritional / health research. In recent years, in addition to being positioned as a healthy snack, California Prunes has cultivated a reputation as an extremely versatile and convenient culinary ingredient, with the ability to decrease the fat and / or sugar content of other food products.
Commenting on the 65th anniversary, Donn Zea, Executive Director of the California Prune Board says, “Our key messaging has become increasingly more strategic, depending on the objective and the market. When foreign competition was non-existent and the dried fruit category less crowded, communication was broadly focused on taste and health, and almost exclusively as either a pitted/unpitted prune or juice for consumers. As eating habits have changed matters of convenience, versatility and functionality have become more the focus. For example, instead of just a healthy food, it might be that the product is supported by research which suggests it may be good for your bones. We've invested time in cultivating relationships with nutrition and health care professionals who represent the credible route to communicating with an increasingly significant number of people who care about healthy eating.
“Furthermore, our outreach to the bakery sector, top chefs, chocolatiers, and food processors looking for "clean-label" ingredients is helping to shape the contemporary view of prunes by creating offerings not available in the past.
“Looking ahead, we will be furthering our work with these culinary professionals in markets across Europe, as well as developing niche opportunities (such as our work with the legendary chocolatier Paul.A.Young) which help to promote the goodness and versatility of California Prunes as a whole and derivative product”.
Contact:
Lisa Allen
Tel: +44 (0)1227 700 175