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New fruit packed with vitamin C

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Baobab fruit

Oranges may soon be relegated to the back of the supermarket shelf after a new exotic fruit with six times more vitamin C is set to hit the grocery stand.

The baobab fruit, which is similar in appearance to a coconut, is packed with nutrients, including twice as much calcium as milk and high in anti-oxidants such as iron and potassium.

On course to become the next big superfood, the fruit will not be sold whole as the shell is difficult to crack, so instead will be available in smoothies and cereal bars.

The new EU ruling to sell Baobab in the UK has received the thumbs up from the chief executive of PhytoTrade Africa, Gus Le Breton.

'Baobab is an ideal ingredient for smoothies and cereal bars, and its well documented nutritional benefits provide manufacturers with a new opportunity to target the booming market in healthy foods,' said Breton.

The white powdery pulp of the Baobab fruit has been consumed by Africans for generations owing to its health benefits.

Click here to see our round-up of the best super foods around.

Tuesday 15 July 2008

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Baobab are not exactly easy, or quick, to cultivate so these fruits will need to come from the wild stock.
So this would be yet another case of more affluent westerners exploiting the food which should be nourishing the local population!
Comment by John Collard on July 15 09:47

Wait, so our newest 'superfood' can only be harvested by children? Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking...?

Of course, presumably, it'll be mass farmed and harvested by adults (receiving a fair wage)... but worth keeping an eye on that, moreso than the the health benefits.
Comment by Amanda on July 15 09:58

Amanda has rightly spotted a slight factual inaccuracy in this article. Although there may be a certain Victorian appeal in the notion of an African Fagan with his (or her) gangs of specially trained children fleecing the local trees of their fruit for Mr(or Mrs) Fagan's personal financial gain, I can assure readers that this is not, in fact, the case! Baobab fruit are most certainly harvested by, and for the benefit of, rural African producers. For cultural reasons, this fruit is usually harvested by women, and the income gained for selling the fruit into EU markets will, we hope, be largely controlled by women. Buying baobab products in future will do much to empower African producers, while contributing to more sustainable livelihoods in parts of the continent where income opportunities are few and far between.
Comment by Gus Le Breton on July 15 19:24

John Collard's fears of affluent westerners exploiting foods that should be nourishing the local population are understandable but, in the case of baobab, unfounded. Researchers estimate that less than 20% of the annual baobab fruit production (estimated at some 700,000 tonnes) in Southern Africa is currently consumed by people, with the vast majority of it falling unused to the ground. Baobab occurs in extremely dry areas where alternative income sources are scarce, and this is one potential income opportunity that could have huge positive impacts on low-income rural producers.
Comment by Gus Le Breton on July 15 19:53

I thought that child labour was "frowned" upon , apparently not so long as a "SUPERFOOD" is concerned. And as for the local environmental factors....we'd be better off sticking to locally grown fruit and veg , also there is less chance of possible allergies !
Comment by jojo on July 15 23:05