In its "Flavors and Ingredients Outlook 2007" report, market research company Packaged Facts stated that consumers will continue this year to focus on health and wellness. One anticipated area of emphasis is juices made from exotic fruits such as pomegranate, goji berry, lychee and mangosteen.
Utah-based XanGo LLC believes that the movement toward purchasing exotic fruit juice will be a lasting one. "I believe that the mangosteen this year is transcending the trend," said XanGo's senior vice president of sales and
marketing, John Digles.
XanGo, which imports
mangosteen juice and processes it in the U.S., introduced its namesake
juice in 2003. The name is derived from two words: "Xan" from xanthones (nutrients found in the rind of the mangosteen
fruit) and "Go" from mangosteen.
The company sells XanGo juice via direct marketing (also known as "multilevel marketing") throughout Europe, Mexico and North America. It has even achieved strong sales in Asia, one of the places where the fruit grows naturally.
An Internet search for "XanGo
ingredients" yields various resellers' interpretations of what is included in the drink. One seller lists the ingredients as "reconstituted garcinia mangostana juice from whole fruit puree,
apple juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate,
grape juice concentrate, pear puree, blueberry juice concentrate, raspberry juice concentrate, strawberry juice concentrate, cranberry juice concentrate, cherry juice concentrate, citric acid,
natural flavor, pectin, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate." Another replaces "juice concentrate" with the term "
fruit juice."
Though XanGo's resellers often point out that ingredients are listed in order of quantity, the actual percentage of mangosteen juice included in XanGo is not officially published and is, instead, referred to as proprietary.
"While I'm a strong supporter of
superfruits and nutritional supplementation, I urge
consumers to look carefully at the juice content that goes into the various superfruit juice
products available today," explained consumer
health advocate Mike Adams, executive director of the
Consumer Wellness Center. "Some superfruit juice products are made mostly with
apple juice, pear juice or grape juice, with only a hint of the superfruit juice. And many of the companies marketing superfruit juices will not reveal the percentage of actual superfruit juice in their blends. I would not personally recommend any product from a company that does not reveal the percentage of superfruit juice in their product," Adams said. "Mangosteen is an amazing fruit, but unless you really know how much is in the drink, you're probably just paying for overpriced apple juice with a hint of mangosteen."
In his article "Defining an Emergent Category," Paul M. Gross, PhD, lists
fruits that fall into the "superfruit" category: acai, blueberries, cranberries, red grapes,
Guarana, mangosteen, noni,
pomegranate, seabuckthorn and wolfberry (or goji). These superfruits are defined as being rich in nutrient value and antioxidants and as offering potential health benefits.
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