Ocean Spray Launches Cranberry Juice Drink for Medical Settings

Image provided by Ocean Spray.

While Ocean Spray (Lakeville-Middleboro, MA) has sometimes shied away from explicitly promoting its cranberry products for their potential to fight urinary tract infections (UTIs), its latest launch campaign for the Cranberry +Health juice drink addresses UTIs head on. The new drink is being positioned for hospitals, managed-care facilities, and retirement homes, where it could give healthcare providers “a nutritional approach to reduce [UTIs],” Ocean Spray says.

Ocean Spray explains that UTIs are the second most common healthcare-associated infection, while catheter-associated UTIs (CAUTIs) are the first most common healthcare-associated infection. CAUTIs affect more than 560,000 patients per year and cost the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $450 million annually, according to Ocean Spray. But in many recent studies, cranberry ingredients have been shown to reduce incidence of UTIs, due in large part to their anti-adhesive properties that disrupt pathogenic bacteria from adhering to epithelial cells in the urinary tract.

“Cranberry +Health may be part of a more holistic solution to help lower healthcare costs associated with UTIs and CAUTIs, by reducing the occurrence of those infections,” said Christina Khoo, PhD, director of global health sciences and regulatory affairs at Ocean Spray. “This exciting new product gives healthcare providers a potential nutritional alternative for their patients that can help manage UTIs.”

In the past, Ocean Spray has expressed reluctance to spell out the anti-UTI message of its cranberry products, instead relying on broad messaging for products that “cleanse and purify,” so that it might avoid confusing consumers. But in the campaign for the Cranberry +Health juice drink, and its intended audience of healthcare providers and patients in healthcare facilities, the firm appears to be taking a more condition-specific approach by calling out UTIs directly.

What’s more, in a recent study, women with a history of recent UTI were randomized to consume either 8 ounces per day of the Cranberry +Health drink or a placebo for 24 weeks. Researchers observed a nearly 40% reduction of symptomatic UTIs among women consuming the cranberry juice, compared to placebo.

Each Cranberry +Health products comes in an 8-ounce package and contains 120 mg of proanthocyanidins (PACs), which means it “contains the highest concentration of cranberry compounds available among Ocean Spray juice products on the market,” according to the brand. The drinks each have 35 calories and 6 grams of sugar.

Read more:

Ocean Spray Aims to Keep Its New Cranberry PACs Campaign “Consumer Friendly”

Coke Cleared by Jury in Advertising Lawsuit Brought by POM Wonderful

Cranberry Industry Skewers JAMA Editorial Proposing No UTI Benefits

Michael Crane
Associate Editor
Nutritional Outlook Magazine
michael.crane@ubm.com

References:

Maki KC, “Consumption of a cranberry juice beverage lowered the number of clinical urinary tract infection episodes in women with a recent history of urinary tract infection,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 103, no. 6 (June 2016): 1434-1442.