Dole sells nutritional products with ‘superfood’ label

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. Dole, the world’s largest fresh produce provider, is taking advantage of the term “superfood,” which was made popular through books a few years ago as a word to describe those food products that offer a high amount of nutritional value.

Dole has its own Web site — dolesuperfoods.com — dedicated to nutritional foods and sorts these products into such health categories as heart, bones, eyes and antioxidants.

“For each category a qualifying fruit or vegetable must contain a minimum level of certain nutrients which have been grouped together because they have the same health benefit,” said Nick Gillitt, a scientist with Dole’s Nutrition Institute.

Dole is also using the logo “Superfood for your Heart” for many of their products and marking superfoods as such. Bananas and other unpackaged items don superfood stickers, while pineapples sport “Superfood for your Joints” hand tags.

Dole isn’t the first company to use the term “superfood” as a marketing tool; NewStar Fresh Foods in October marked its Super Spinach a superfood, and retail newsletters distributed by Safeway and Albertsons have been selling their products through this marketing strategy for a while. Keystone Fruit Marketing Inc. wants to mark its sweet onions as a superfood and is currently busy working on scientific research to determine whether or not sweet onions make the cut.