Company: Welch's Global Ingredients Group

Website: www.welchsgig.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Welch’s Global Ingredients Group’s mission to harness the goodness of the Concord grape for a world of new applications has stepped up a gear with the launch of new FruitWorx Concord Grape Juice Powder.

The powder is made with a proprietary dehydration process that gently removes all the water from the fruit juice but captures its natural wholesomeness and retains its bold flavor and rich purple color. The resulting product is a free-flowing, soluble, low water activity powder, ideal for adding a unique and compelling twist to a host of applications, including the following:

• Confectionery – such as candies, gums, chocolates, fillings and icings
• Dairy products – fluid, cultured and frozen
• Baked goods – breads, snack bars, cookies and biscuits
• Snacks – including dry snacks, baby snacks, crackers and fillings

FruitWorx Concord Grape Juice Powder is made with real fruit juice. It delivers natural fruit sugars, is free from artificial colors, flavors or preservatives, and is non-GMO. In addition, it delivers the same kind of polyphenols found in Welch’s 100% Grape Juice. 

Wayne Lutomski, the company’s vice president of international & global ingredients, said: “Nearly two years ago Welch’s Foods Inc established the Welch’s Global Ingredients Group to deliver the many benefits of the Concord grape to more people and places, in a range of new product formats. FruitWorx Concord Grape Juice Powder enables us to continue this mission, offering our customers a convenient way to bring the goodness of the Concord grape to a very wide range of applications, many of which are completely new categories for Welch’s Global Ingredients Group. We’re incredibly excited by the prospect of more people experiencing the Concord grape, and by the prospect of working with new partners across the world.”

The new Concord grape juice powder is an extension of the existing FruitWorx brand, which already encompasses a range of Concord and Niagara grape-based fruit pieces, flakes and pastes, made using a concentration process called URC, developed by Taura Natural Ingredients. Welch’s Global Ingredients Group also supplies Concord and Niagara grape juices as single-strength juices, concentrates and purées.

Named after Concord, Massachusetts – where it was first grown – the Concord grape is famous for its purple skin, bold taste and naturally occurring polyphenols. About 20 years of research has demonstrated that, thanks to the Concord grape and its polyphenols, Concord grape juice helps support a healthy heart. And, while more research is needed, preliminary studies suggest that Concord grape juice may provide benefits in other areas of health, including cognitive function. In addition, a recent publication has shown that Concord grape juice has a greater concentration of these health-promoting polyphenols than several leading ‘superfruit’ juices.