Nutrition's Emerald City

Green is the new gold. It denotes not only a primary color, but it also connotes sustainability, eco-friendly, wealth and, now, the Emerald City of nutrition—foods fortified with good-for-you greens that boost their nutritional profile.

Many factors are contributing to the growth of green foods and their expansion into new avenues and diverse applications—from GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status and government dietary interventions to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reporting, "In 2009, an estimated 32.5 percent of adults consumed fruit two or more times per day and 26.3 percent consumed vegetables three or more times per day, far short of the national targets," in its State-Specific Trends in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Adults—United States, 2000 -2009 report released in September 2010.

"Green foods are moving from early adopters and specialty food stores to mainstream consumers and supermarkets," said Rudi E. Moerck, president and CEO, Valensa. "There has also been increased awareness of green foods as a result of celebrity endorsers recently."

Since green foods is such a broad term that blankets several raw materials—from algae such as spirulina and chlorella to cereal grasses such as wheat grass, oat grass and alfalfa—offering customization and diversity broadens the fortification and formulation opportunities. "Custom formulating and blending of [green food products] is a large part of our business, so the question we ask our customers is 'What do you want to add to your product?' and we make it happen in our custom green formulas," said Jeff Wuagneux, president and CEO, RFI LLC.

Not only is it important to ask what your customers are looking for, but what are consumers looking for? The good news is this conversation is already happening. Consumers are telling, and manufacturers are responding. "Consumers are looking ‘under the hood’ of green foods to take a look at the specific types of nutrition they provide," Moerck said. "There is awareness that not all ingredients and formulated products offer the same nutritional value. Spirulina has become much more interesting to consumers because of the complete nutrition—protein, vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients— that it provides. Even within the spirulina category, consumers are responding to products that have higher levels of carotenoids, phytopigments, such as phycocyanin and chlorophyll, as well as the essential fatty acid (EFA) gamma-linolenic acid (GLA)."