Company and Fruit Industry News

Guava - A Tropical Superfruit

Guava is a  popular tropical fruit with unique flavor, taste, and heath promoting qualities. 

Botanically, this wonderful fruit belongs to the family of Myrtaceae of the genus: psidium and known as Psidium guajava.  The plant is a evergreen, tropical shrub or small tree and can thrive in both humid and dry climates. It can tolerate brief periods of cold spells, but can survive only a few degrees of frost. Adaptability makes it a favorite commercial crop in some tropical areas.

The guava  is either pear shaped or round shaped seasonal fruit, light green or yellow or maroon in color from outside when ripe, with white or maroon flesh and lots of small hard seeds enveloped into a  very soft and sweet pulp. The  guava fruit has a taste that can vary from slightly tangy to sweet. Grown in the tropics, this fruit is gaining popularity in  United States where it's being used in  fruit juice, desserts, jams, and sauces. Enormously popular in Mexico and the Caribbean countries, it's frequently made into a juice and used to add a unique taste dimension to sweet desserts. Many chefs are now discovering that guava can be a tasty ingredient in sauces and salad dressings.

Health Benefits of the Guava fruit

 Guava fruit  is a real  storehouse of nutrients. Because of its high nutritional density,  it is  often included among superfruits .The whole fruit can be eaten, including the rind and the seeds. Guava  is  rich in dietary fiber, vitamins A and C, folic acid, and potassium, copper and manganese. Having a generally broad, low-calorie profile of essential nutrients, a single common guava (P. guajava) fruit contains about four times the amount of vitamin C as an orange.  Guava is free of  cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium.

Guava  is one of the richest sources of  natural pectin ranging from 0.5% to 1.8%  and the pectin content  is affected by various factors  such as variety, stage of maturity  and crop season. Guava is  a good source of antioxidant carotenoids (cryptoxanthin, lycopene and  Beta  carotene). The fruit is  also a good source of polyphenols

iTi procures  pink guava from Ecuador. The puree  is obtained from fruit cultivated from their own farms and this particular fact grants them a competitive advantage, because it allows them to guarantee  the control and precise accomplishment of international fruit regulations.The guava puree  or concentrate is produced from mature fruit free of insects and disease. Once the fruit is received in  the processing plant , Care is taken to ensure that the fruit meets the highest quality standards. Product is commercially sterile and filled in an aseptic bag following the guidelines under good manufacturing practices .  The fruit  puree is packaged in aseptic bags  in cartons and drums. Popular formulations with tropical fruits are gauva nectar, gauva smoothie, strawberry gauva etc.

iTi also has white guava concentrate available as well as guava essence.

For more R&D ideas and Technical inputs for using guava contact our R&D team at iTi Tropicals