Eastern Canada’s experience marketing the health benefits of wild blueberries could assist prairie fruit growers, said Kelley Fitzpatrick of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals in Winnipeg.
She said the Maritimes had successfully studied and promoted how blueberries’ antioxidant properties contribute to good health.
“Let’s learn from the industry successes elsewhere,” she said, noting the popularity of blueberries in smoothies (fruit beverages) and doughnut store muffins.
Fitzpatrick cited as an example the potential in extracting the colour from saskatoons and marketing them as a Canadian product believed to enhance eye health.
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In studies done by Willy Kalt, a scientist with Agriculture Canada in Nova Scotia, researchers have linked antioxidant properties in fruits and vegetables with decreased incidence of cancer and cardiovascular disease and a lower risk of degenerative brain conditions.
Mice fared better after strokes if they had been on diets rich in blueberries, said Kalt.
She said there are general health benefits from diets rich in all fruits and vegetables, but blueberries stand apart.
“Wild blueberries are in a class all by themselves compared to other fruits and vegetables,” she said.
She is trying to identify the varieties that offer the greatest benefits and use those varieties in selection and breeding programs. Kalt is also interested in how the body uses the beneficial components.
Fitzpatrick said farmers can diversify and add value to their operations by creating supplements to improve a host of illnesses.
Most nutraceutical products are produced and marketed in Canada by small companies, with 10 or fewer employees.
“It’s an industry in its infancy,” Fitzpatrick said.
She said Canada is uniquely positioned because of the amount of research in agriculture and on nutraceutical goods.
The regulatory environment remains its biggest challenge, with processors limited in their descriptions of the products’ health benefits.
In Canada, these products can only list five attributes, restricting the country’s ability to attract investment and to test-market new products, she said.
The imminent creation of a directorate for regulating natural health products will improve the credibility of functional foods and nutraceuticals.
“The snake oil salesmen will be driven out of town,” Fitzpatrick said.
