Acerola powder – Natural vitamin C for the body’s protection

Clean labelling and the sustainable trend to unprocessed food set new standards for production of food and dietary supplements today. “E-numbers” on food labels are getting more and more unpopular and influence the consumer’s decision to buy a product. Producers try to meet the user’s concerns by reducing additives or – if this is not an option due to functional reasons – to replace them by natural ingredients. This way, E-numbers can be erased and the product itself is perceived to have a higher value in the eyes of many consumers. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is one substance that is often applied to food and beverage products due to its clear functional benefits.

Acerola powder is an excellent provider of natural vitamin C, that makes the E-number 300 on labels dispensable. But the processing of acerola involves certain imperatives as the quality of the production process is key for the later quality of products.

The Brazilian company Duas Rodas invested foresighted in research and technology and is today one of the global leaders in supplying acerola powder of finest quality.

The specific strengths of acerola as a supplier of natural vitamin C

Acerola is a first-class vitamin C-supplier. The fruit that reminds of cherry has one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C known for fruits. Using acerola to process natural vitamin C therefore saves raw materials and protects the environment because much smaller number of fruits is required. 1700 up to 3000 mg ascorbic acid can be extracted from 100 g of acerola. tropextrakt guarantees that the traded acerola powder has a 17 % concentration of ascorbic acid, which delivers optimal process and product characteristics (hygroscopicity) with a view to subsequent processing. This promise implicates that the production process needs to meet high demands.

Urgent requirements to fast and gentle processing

The special requirements start at the very beginning, the time of harvest. Only unripe acerola cherries have the expected, very high content of vitamin C. When ripening, the fruits get increasingly aromatic but the contained vitamin C decreases. On top, the unripe fruits must be processed very fast after being harvested. They go bad very easily and are therefore not suitable to be traded as fresh fruits on longer distances. Suppliers that buy acerola juice of third parties to produce acerola powder include an additional hurdle for quality at this stage: If the juice wasn’t processed out of the unripe fruits early or fast enough, the vitamin C concentration will be reduced, which is than true also for the acerola powder that is generated on the next level. Also soiling could have happened on the previous stage and are then impossible to be removed.

Guaranteed vitamin C quality for acerola powder “Made in Brazil”

The Brazilian firm Duas Rodas that is represented exclusively by tropextrakt in selected European countries, focused early on the optimized processes to produce acerola powder. Founded in 1925 by German emigrants, Duas Rodas is today Latin America’s largest flavor house and FSSC-certified. In its own development department, Duas Rodas had conducted comprehensive research on the characteristics of acerola powder and proved that the product abilities are minimum on a par with synthetic vitamin C in all relevant dimensions.

The company met the special requirements of the processing of acerola by installing the manufacturing plant directly into the region of cultivation in the North-East of Brazil. This way, the acerola fruits don’t need to be transported a long way, but are directly processed after harvesting. The method of processing – spray dried powdering – is very gentle and preserves the natural vitamin C concentration the best way.

In contrast to suppliers that buy acerola juices in the market to process it, Duas Rodas can eliminate all previous impurities: The complete quality assurance starts on the very first level of production, with the cultivation and the handling of fruits on the field.

Final quality control by tropextrakt in Germany

External analyses of well-known laboratories additionally proved the natural origin of the vitamin C of Duas Rodas. The product is supplied exclusively by tropextrakt in selected European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland.

Functional application of vitamin C in the area of food processing

Vitamin C, which is also known as ascorbic acid, does not only fulfil crucial functions in the human body but also as an additive food ingredient:

• in bakery products, it improves the baking abilities of the flour as well as the fermenting and airiness of the dough
• in meat and sausages, it acts as an antioxidant and stabilizes colour; it supports the effectiveness of the nitrites in the process of reddening and inhibits the formation of toxic nitrosamines
• in fruit and vegetable cans as well as processed, also frozen potatoes products, it inhibits browning
• beverages such as wine, beer and fruit juices are stabilized by the adding of vitamin C
• cereals and sweets (e.g.: granola bars) receive additional vitamins or are becoming vitaminised food
• In addition, there is the large area of dietary supplements, which focuses on the purposeful taking of vitamin C.

Acerola Products in the Market