A New South Wales Blood Orange producer is pushing for the fruit to be moved from the gourmet to the mainstream category, thanks to some new research. Redbelly Citrus has embarked on a campaign this year to promote the health benefits of the fruit.
"It's not easy to do, because of the connotations people in the health market have with respect to sugar," Co-Director Len Mancini said. "So we have had to do a lot research to tease out the benign effect sugar has within the body when it is delivered in fresh fruit and juice. What we found is that you can't compare a blood orange, or even blood orange juice, with a soft drink. The sugars are different, they act in different ways, and the nutrients that they are co-delivered with direct the body to metabolise them differently."
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Mr Mancini says just because the fruit contains sugar, does not mean that it will be turned into fat, and a lot of good healthy products have been lost in the confusion. He adds that it is important to recapture people's willingness to eat fresh fruit, or we have lost a generation.
"I know people like my personal trainer, and the only fruit he will touch is berries because he knows they are high in nutrients and low in sugar," he said. "But what we found is you get the same benefits of eating blood oranges that you do berries because they have the same anthocyanins. The same polyphenols that gives blood oranges their red colour, are the same polyphenols that make blueberries blue and raspberries red. The one big difference is the price; you can buy a bag of blood oranges, a few kilos, for $10. If you go and buy a couple of kilos of berries it could add up to $100."
One finding that surprised the company in the research is that blood oranges have more than nine times the antioxidant levels than navel oranges, and three times the polyphenols. Mr Mancini said that the finding is important as a lot of these antioxidant molecules in the fruit also have important metabolic effects.
“A previous study on mice found that blood orange juice can alter the function of liver cells so they’re less likely to be stored as fat," he said. "Furthermore the blood orange juice was found to significantly reduce or almost completely abolish the weight gain in a high fat diet, with a 50% reduction in the belly fat and fat stored in the liver itself. Another study conducted in humans found that drinking 750mls of blood orange juice a day did not lead to increased fat in the body. On the contrary, it decreased it despite adding over 80 grams of natural fruit sugars a day into the diet."
The Redbelly co-director says it is important to utilise the internet and social media, as the health and well-being crowd tend to be young and technology driven. But also the message needs to speak to speak to supermarket shoppers so that they can get nutrients at a cost effective rate.
"People tend to be open to receiving good advice from people over the internet that they perceive to be knowledgeable and this message would be particularly suited for dissemination through those channels," Mr Mancini said. "But also more in store activities, for example an A6 flyer that can be peeled off so they can read what the benefits might be. As well, dump bins that fruit stores can use, that have the key messages on the bin itself. The key is educating the consumer with all of the information that we have gathered during the past ten years of growing blood oranges."
Redbelly Citrus has noticed an increase in demand, especially from food manufacturers over the past few years. Blood oranges being used in products such as yoghurts, ice blocks and gelato, and Mr Mancini hopes this new research can help build even more interest in the variety.
"Year on year, we sell more blood oranges at the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane markets," Mr Mancini said. "But as an industry, we need to ensure it's sustainable and make sure demand is there to meet those future years where we are going to have more production. We are still a number of years off hitting peak production."
For more information:Len Mancini
Redbelly Citrus
Phone: +61 2 6964 3288