Comprehensive Criteria for Superfruit Status

By Paul Gross, Ph.D.

In science, the word "super" is accepted for exceptional conditions such as a superconductor or superfluid that can be defined by objective criteria justifying it as superior. Clear definition is missing from the superfruits industry, where, for most consumers, superfruit means a juice product marketed as super by its manufacturer, usually without scientific evidence for anything superlative.

Superfruits are an important category for introducing healthful fruit formats to consumers; yet, there is only a vague definition for what qualifies a fruit with "super" status. During the past five years, almost every novel exotic fruit has been called a superfruit, a total now of about 36 called "super" in industry media. Absence of qualifying criteria defies true nutritional and phytochemical differences among fruits and research progress that may help manufacturers and consumers better differentiate them.

A more grounded way to assess the qualifications of superfruit candidates is using five criteria to screen the whole foods. The criteria are not rigorously quantitative or definitive, but rather are a screen for qualifying superfruits, hopefully stimulating discussion about how to better characterize superfruit products. The proposed scoring system derives from an example in the clinical trials industry in which independent scientific raters scored the quality of clinical trials (Control Clin Trials. 1996 Feb;17(1):1-12).

The criteria lead to accepting only a few fruits actually having exceptional qualities—eight in total, eliminating most others as nutritionally deficient or scientifically undeveloped to warrant calling them true superfruits.