BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Beginning this month, Baobab Foods will provide a new, superior superfruit option to health-conscious Americans – baobab, an antioxidant and vitamin powerhouse, deemed by Fast Company Magazine as the new “king of superfruits.” Baobab has more antioxidants than acai, more calcium than any fruit, and a cornucopia of nutrients including iron, potassium, magnesium and vitamin C.
Baobab Foods will initially offer two different Baobab consumer products – healthy fruit bars and a nutritious, ingredient drink mix. The Baobab Fruit Bars are available in three flavors – apricot, apple and cherryberry, which will sell for $1.99 initially from the Baobab Foods Web site. Baobab Fruit Bars have an extremely low glycemic index and are high in fiber, making them ideal for people managing diabetes.
The second product is pure, soluble baobab, called BaoBest Fruit Powder, which will sell for $12.99 per six-ounce canister from the company Web site. BaoBest Fruit Powder is suitable for mixing into a wide range of foods and drinks, including smoothies, sports drinks, yogurt and water. Eventually the company expects to sell the BaoBest ingredient mix to food manufacturers for inclusion in a wide range of third-party products including teas, jams, cereals and juices.
Baobab Foods is the exclusive North American importer of baobab products from Afriplex. Based in Paarl, South Africa, Afriplex is the world’s premier supplier of high-quality baobab products, marketed as BaoBest in the U.S. As the exclusive importer in North America, Baobab Foods owns the rights to launch and market its own line of consumer products based upon the highly nutritious baobab fruit, as well as sell BaoBest fruit pulp to other companies seeking to create their own lines of baobab products.
Baobab is the fruit of the iconic tree with the same name found in Africa, Madagascar and parts of Australia. The baobab tree – often called by locals as the “the tree of life” – can live for over 2,000 years and has been a food staple for centuries – baobab seeds have been found stored in Egyptian pyramids. Baobab products such as jams, nutrition bars, teas and powder ingredient mixes have been available for several years in Africa and Europe but have yet to find their way into North America, until now. The Food and Drug Administration has granted the baobab product with GRAS, Generally Recognized As Safe, status, helping to open the door for Baobab Foods to launch its new line of nutritional products.
“Baobab has the potential to dominate the superfruit conversation,” says Bob Hartman, co-owner of the Back to Basics Natural Foods Grocery in East Greenwich Rhode Island (www.backtobasicsnaturalfoods.com), one of the largest health food stores in southern New England. “Its overall nutritional levels are outstanding and I wouldn’t be surprised to see whole new lines of baobab-enriched health products in the very near future.”
The company is the brainchild of Seattle businessman, David Bruck, whose journeys brought him face to face with the upside of the baobab fruit. According to Bruck: “I got into this because I saw a chance to ‘do well’ from a business standpoint, and to ‘do good’ from a humanitarian perspective. For many rural, African families, the extra income now derived from the wild baobab can truly be a life-changing experience.”
The company has assembled a first-rate team to take this natural and organic product to market. Staffers include executives with years of superfruit product expertise, an international procurement specialist on the ground in Africa and a marketing director with experience at JWT, P&G and Heinz.
According to Bruck: “Baby boomers have already been pre-sold on the benefits of products high in antioxidants like pomegranate and Pom Wonderful. Baobab offers significantly more antioxidants as well as a multitude of naturally occurring vitamins and nutrients such as calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium. The organic baobab fruit consists of 50% fiber and is considered a pre-biotic, significantly aiding digestibility.”
About Baobab Foods
Baobab Foods, Inc. is dedicated to introducing the baobab superfruit to consumers in the United States and Canada. Baobab Foods is committed to improving the human condition and well being of a global society by providing nutritionally advanced, African baobab food products. The company's product line includes great-tasting nutrition bars and a tangy drink mix for health conscious men and women of all ages, including baby boomers and active seniors. Learn more at www.baobabfoods.com