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COMMENTS & ANALYSIS
Eat Eight Strawberries, But Consider These Eight Research Principles
by jim prevor, editor-in-chief, produce business
The produce industry is fortunate to have such wonderful products to sell. They are generally beautiful, delicious
and healthy. They have the endorsement of public health authorities and, increasingly, individual commodities are producing research that details bene ts of consumption. Yet, overall consumption is not increasing. Oh sure, individual products may boom for all kinds of reasons — kale, blueberries, Brussels sprouts and pomegranates all have experi- enced booms because of technology, research related to health claims, culinary trends and much more.
Certainly, for all the reasons detailed in this Research Perspective and many more, straw- berries have seen an increase in consumption. Clever marketing campaigns have done a great job of communicating messages, such as the desirability of eating eight strawberries every day.
Indeed, whereas bananas were once the King Category within produce at almost every retailer, berries — with a substantial assort- ment, a boom in organic, availability from Mexico, high-quality proprietary varieties and excellent branding — are now the No. 1 cate- gory at almost all retailers.
Yet, for the industry as a whole, the kind of research being done is mostly just moving volume around the category. So, people who would have had spinach buy kale, and those who would have bought another snack fruit buy some berries. None of it has been suf - cient to boost overall produce consumption.
Why? The research seems to always have the same limitations. Let me lay out the eight principles that produce research has to tran- scend if we are to boost the overall produce consumption based on health ndings:
1. Prove the nutrients are needed
It is a nice talking point to mention that a produce item is high in, say, vitamin C, but is the population short of vitamin C? Are many people in danger of getting scurvy? First rule of marketing: Sell the bene ts not the feature. Having a vitamin is a feature — not a bene t.
For the industry as a whole, the kind of research being done is mostly just moving volume around the category.
2. Don’t sell markers, sell end points
Lots of research establishes that one produce item or another is somehow asso- ciated with a marker such as in ammation or a higher or lower cholesterol number, but what is the endpoint? People care about these things because of a possibility they may reduce the likelihood of heart attacks or stroke. Is our research strong enough to make that claim?
3. Beware of marketing terms
It has been a boon for individual items to be given labels such as Superfoods. But these are not universally accepted scienti c terms and have no clear meaning. It makes consumers skeptical to use words that don’t clearly mean things.
4. Causation, not association
Studies that show association are really just signs the industry should invest in research as to causation. Produce is very vulnerable in this area as it is known to be healthy. So, consumers interested in healthy living will gravitate to produce and to many other healthy lifestyle choices, from exercise to meditation to not smoking. To have the kind of breakthroughs in consumption we need, we must be able to say speci cally that more consumption will cause better outcomes.
5. Beware of self-reporting
Consumer recollection of eating habits is notoriously poor. Yet much industry research depends on data that consumers supply as to what they claim or remember they ate. Not only are memories often faulty, but it is not a neutral decision to simply say they ate a salad or fried
chicken, so consumers often overstate their consumption of fresh produce.
6. Replacement versus addition
Many claims about the bene ts of increased produce consumption revolve around general principles about the causes of obesity. The general industry program of Fruit & Veggies — More Matters has always tried to skate this ambiguity. The basis for the claim is that more consump- tion of produce will lead to less consump- tion of something else. The evidence that increasing one’s calorie consumption by adding a serving of produce will result in better health outcomes is thin indeed.
7. Scale of studies
Many produce-related health studies are small and unduplicated. It is not uncommon for these studies to have only 50 or 60 participants and to have been done one time, in one place. If the industry is going to really motivate change in eating behavior, we need to have larger studies that are reproduced by multiple institutions.
8. Fresh produce
Many studies use juice, dried product, freeze-dried product, powdered product, etc., typically because it is easier. But if we want to persuade people that the bene- ts are derived from eating fresh product, that is what we ought to use in our indus- try-funded studies.
So, let’s hope consumers eat their eight strawberries a day and that the industry thinks about these eight principles in funding the kinds of research that may actually boost overall produce consumption.
PRODUCE BUSINESS / OCTOBER 2018 / 25