Key takeaways:
- Ocean Spray Ingredients is expanding cranberries beyond their holiday image by showcasing them as versatile, year-round ingredients in bakery innovation.
- The company’s sustainability model utilizes 95% of the fruit, including upcycled cranberry seeds that add color and texture to baked goods.
- Rooted in Massachusetts’ cranberry country, Ocean Spray is aligning its ingredient portfolio with major industry trends in reduced sugar, clean labels, and portion control.
For most people, cranberries are synonymous with Christmas. They make their annual cameo alongside turkey and stuffing, perhaps in a cocktail or two, and then retreat to the pantry until the holidays roll around again. But Ocean Spray Ingredients is on a mission to change that perception – showing that this tart little fruit has range far beyond the festive season.
At this year’s IBIE in Las Vegas, the brand’s booth showcased cranberries in all-new formats: savory pork belly glazes, maple–cranberry syrups, colorful seeds and bite-sized bakery treats. Carrie Livingston, VP of Media Relations at Ocean Spray Ingredients, says the key to stretching the cranberry’s potential is to preserve its essence while exploring new ways for it to shine.
“The sweet-tart nature is distinctive to cranberries,” she says. “And the color is quite bright and beautiful. Those are the things we keep intact – the essence of why you might choose cranberry.”
It’s also about balance. “Against fatty pork belly, it’s a really nice cut,” she adds. “My favorite thing is the Maple Cran syrup. Maple is quite sweet and the cran kind of cuts the sweetness and adds tartness. It’s about finding those opportunities where cranberry can be a counterweight or a counterbalance.”
In other words, cranberries can do far more than decorate a dessert – they can elevate it.
From bakery basics to functional flair
Ocean Spray’s product development team has been busy broadening the fruit’s appeal without losing its identity. Livingston says that while cranberries still play beautifully in traditional baked goods, the focus of the Massachusetts company – rooted in the heart of cranberry country in Lakeville-Middleboro, south of Boston – is on “aligning with the general trends” shaping today’s bakery market.
“For example, we have a reduced-sugar item, and one that’s sweetened by apple juice instead of sugar,” she says. “It’s about creating additional lanes within bakery.”
Those ‘lanes’ are designed to help formulators tackle real-world challenges – whether that’s cost, functionality or label claims. “If another dried fruit is difficult for processing or expensive, we have the Berry Fusion range,” Livingston explains. “If you’re looking for something upcycled or no-sugar-added, you can look at the seeds. If you’re looking for a different sweetener or reduced sugar, those exist, too.”
Rather than pushing cranberries into unfamiliar categories, Ocean Spray is positioning them as flexible problem-solvers. “We’re filling pockets of our portfolio that help with some of the challenges we see in bakery. It’s about making cranberry a solution.”
That includes expanding beyond sweetness. Flavored variants like blueberry or apple–cranberry, she notes, are designed to blend more consistently in doughs and batters, improving color distribution and flavor balance. “Cranberries are much better in terms of bleeding in baked applications. If you’re having bleeding issues with another fruit, cranberry can be a better fit.”
Mini treats, mega impact
At IBIE, Ocean Spray’s culinary team also leaned into one of the strongest bakery trends of the moment – smaller, portable formats. “We’ve done smaller portions here at the show because people are trying so much,” Livingston says. “It’s a quick little bite where you can get a strong flavor punch.”
But portion control isn’t just about convenience. “People are looking for minis of things to enjoy versus larger portion sizes,” she says. “Whether that’s because they’re on the go or watching what they eat, there are a lot of factors. Even visually, a bite-size bao bun looks a little more appealing than a large plate.”
Livingston adds that these smaller formats give bakers a chance to make every bite count. “You can have something indulgent, something that pops with color and still feel good about eating the whole thing.”
And when it comes to balancing indulgence with functionality, few fruits can match the cranberry’s natural credentials. “We definitely call cranberries a superfruit. They’re very high in antioxidant content. There are a variety of elements that exist naturally within the cranberry that we can leverage – depending on region and product type, of course.”
While sweetened dried cranberries are still the most recognized format, the company continues to explore new ways to showcase the fruit’s health benefits and to support further scientific research around its antioxidant and polyphenol content.
A sustainability story worth telling
Sustainability has long been a cornerstone of Ocean Spray’s identity and Livingston says the company’s grower-owned cooperative model gives it a unique edge in keeping that commitment visible.
“Cranberries use a lot of water, but that water is reused for multiple harvests,” she says. “And 95% of the fruit is actually utilized – whether it’s turned into cranberry seeds, concentrate, or sweet dried cranberries. There’s very little waste to begin with.”
That efficiency has even led to a new star ingredient: cranberry seeds. “They’re upcycled from a waste stream in the sweet dried cranberry manufacturing process. It’s not exactly new, but we’re promoting it more now – especially for bakery, where it’s quite a good fit.”
The seeds, she adds, have “a barely tart flavor” and “add color or texture without requiring reformulation.” Originally launched during COVID, they’re now being reintroduced to strong market interest. “It’s new for a lot of people – many have never heard of cranberry seed. But we’re continuing to look at what other waste streams exist and how we can utilize even more than 95% of the fruit.”
Ocean Spray has also received third-party verification for its sustainable farming practices – a point Livingston is proud to highlight. “Cranberries are the first fully sustainably grown fruit,” she says. “That’s something we stand by.”
The cranberry comeback
When asked where she sees the cranberry in five years’ time, Livingston doesn’t hesitate. “There’s opportunity for cranberries to be an alternative in a cinnamon raisin bread, a raisin bagel or an oatmeal raisin cookie. If you want to bring up the color impact or add a twist on a classic, that’s something we could see more of in the future.”
She also points to shifting agricultural realities as a chance for the fruit to expand its footprint. “Climate change is impacting all agriculture. If there are challenges in other fruit markets and we have flavored cranberries that can be a substitute, that’s something we’ll continue to look at.”
Ocean Spray’s outreach efforts are also part of that future. The company recently began hosting media tours during harvest to show how its grower-owned cooperative model works in practice. “We’re an agricultural cooperative – the farmers own the company,” Livingston explains. “There are about 700 farmers, many multi-generational and they’re the essence of who we are.”
Those farmers, she adds, oversee one of the most visually striking harvests in the fruit world. “Cranberries don’t grow on trees – they grow on vines in the ground and then you flood the bogs and the fruit floats to the top,” Livingston says. “It’s quite a unique process. There aren’t too many places in the world you can see a cranberry harvest.”
With cultivation spanning the US, Canada and Chile, the cranberry’s reach is already global – and its future in bakery could be just as expansive.
“We sell and share cranberries really across the world. It’s time people saw what they can really do,” assets Livingston.
