Welch’s and Taura Natural Ingredients join forces to market FruitWorx in USA and North Asia

Welch’s and Taura Natural Ingredients have created a breakthrough partnership that means inclusions produced from Welch’s Concord Grape Juice and Purée will be available to manufacturers of products such as nutrition bars, confectionery, bakery products and breakfast cereals for the first time.

To be marketed as FruitWorx®, the new inclusions will contain all the taste and goodness of the Concord Grape for which Welch’s range of premium juices are famous.

Under the terms of the ground-breaking deal, Taura Natural Ingredients will create concentrated pieces and pastes from Welch’s Concord Grape Juice and Purée using its Ultra Rapid Concentration (URC®) process. Developed by Taura Natural Ingredients, URC is a unique process of concentrating the taste, texture and natural goodness of fruit into pieces, flakes and pastes for use in a wide range of formats – either alone or in combination with other fruits, and blended with grains including ancient grains such as chia.

FruitWorx will initially be available in North American, Japanese and South Korean markets

FruitWorx pieces and pastes will be sold exclusively through both companies, enabling strong relationships already established to continue, while simultaneously expanding the appeal of the grape further afield. Initially, FruitWorx will be available to the North American, Japanese and South Korean markets, with other geographies set to follow later.

The agreement represents a significant technological development. The slip skin and large seeds of the Concord Grape make it difficult to use as an inclusion. However, using Taura Natural Ingredients’ technology to create FruitWorx opens up a world of new opportunities with unlimited potential.

Wayne D. Lutomski, Vice President of International & Global Ingredients for Welch’s, said, “Welch’s mission is to bring the great taste of the Concord Grape to more places and to more people. Through our partnership with Taura Natural Ingredients, and its unique URC process, we will be able to take Concord Grapes into applications never before imagined.”

Richard Croad, COO and President of Taura North America, added: “Welch’s Concord Grape Juice products are widely known, enjoyed and trusted by millions of consumers and now, at last, food manufacturers can leverage this brand equity by using FruitWorx® inclusions in their own products. The two companies are a natural fit, combining Welch’s brand leadership and high levels of awareness with Taura Natural Ingredients’ expertise in the creation of high quality concentrated pieces and pastes from real fruit. We’re excited about the prospects this offers in terms of building entirely new fruit concepts and applications based on Welch’s amazing Concord Grape.”