Dispatches from Vitafoods Europe 2011

Measure for measure: Cranberry wars rage on

The long-standing dispute within the cranberry industry about the most appropriate way to measure the urinary tract infection (UTI)-battling berry’s active constituents was resolved in France recently when a government body backed a version of the DMAC method. Or did it?

Gunter Haesaerts, the man who won the initial proanthocyanidins (PACs)-based cranberry-UTI health claim in France in 2004, and owner of supplier Pharmatoka, says the issue is settled – that finally the DMAC method has received the official French validation he has fought for for so long.

But David Tournay, owner of Tournay Biotechnologies and president of Euracran, a group that includes Burgundy Botanical Extracts and Diana Naturals, and which backs the European Pharmacopoeia PACs measuring method, says otherwise.

Tournay says a subsequent note from the French body in question - the Directorate General of Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) - shows the issue is far from resolved in the €25m French market.

Measure for measure: Cranberry wars rage on

The long-standing dispute within the cranberry industry about the most appropriate way to measure the urinary tract infection (UTI)-battling berry’s active constituents was resolved in France recently when a government body backed a version of the DMAC method. Or did it?

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