How science can pull more value from existing crops

As the head of research, development and sustainability at Ocean Spray, Katy Galle is paying close attention to what people want from their food. Once, a snack was just a snack. Now, Americans expect health benefits, sustainability and more from each bite. But while synthetic biology can bring these benefits, many Americans distrust GMOs. Galle believes that traditional horticulture and ingredient-driven innovation can deliver the healthier, more affordable and tastier options that people crave.

Christopher Good: Ocean Spray is a co-op. How does that impact your perspective on innovation? 

Katy Galle: When you have a specialty crop like cranberries, farmers develop a lot of their equipment. Some use a mechanical rake for dry harvesting. Others do wet harvesting: They flood a bog, then they use tractors to knock the berries off the vines so they float in the water, then they use a boom to circle the cranberries. Our farmers are the real innovators. They’ve borrowed technologies from other industries and adapted them to cranberry farming — or they’ve created their own tools where they didn't exist before. 

Good: You recently partnered with a sea kelp-based company. What are the most exciting opportunities you see with alternative proteins and ingredients?  

Galle: We partnered with Atlantic Sea Farms, a New England-based company. It started with us seeing if there were any best practices we could share on harvesting, and that spurred some work with their innovation team. We have an extensive ingredients division, where we sell ingredients for a variety of applications outside our products — like using cranberry seeds as sprinkles, or as a healthy way to bring color to food.

We also regularly put products out in test markets. The key unlock for alternative proteins and new ingredients is delivering value and great taste to consumers. The challenge, though, is how to commercialize that on a larger scale at an affordable price.

Good: Innovation can bring various benefits — health, cost, sustainability — but which are most important for the people buying your products? 

Galle: All of those play a really important role. You may have heard about our partnership with Amai Proteins on new sweetener technology, for example. At the end of the day, it's all about delivering great taste, along with the nutrients that consumers are looking for. That’s a balancing act, right? Unfortunately, there is no magic answer. But I’m really looking for those synergistic formula blends, whether it's a blend of nutrients or other ingredients that can have functionality while also delivering great taste. It's an important role of R&D to vet these technologies, but to also stick with them as they scale and evolve.

Good: Our polling has found that many Americans have mixed feelings about GMOs. What signals are you watching for on this front? 

Galle: What we are seeing from consumers is the ask for a deeper connection to, and understanding of, the foods they eat. They are choosy about the brands they purchase, and that includes the ingredients used.

Good: With Craisins, you turned discarded proteins into a snack. What lessons do you see for the future about reuse and recycling?  

Galle: We actually just did an analysis which found that we utilize 95% of the fruit. Like Craisins — originally those hulls were thrown away, but now we repurpose that skin. We also leverage some of the press cake that comes from pressing out the juice, which has naturally occurring pectin. And the last 2.5% of insoluble fiber, we sell for pet feed. We're doing research to see if we can convert that into an even more valuable use in the future. We have a lot of fun exploring every opportunity possible. 

Good: Climate change could have unpredictable effects on the food industry at large. What role does innovation and technology play in planning for the future?  

Galle: We're actually doing work right now with Yale University to explore carbon sequestration at the farm level, to really understand the carbon footprint not just of the cranberry bog, but also the surrounding land. For every acre of bog, there's about 5.5 acres of supporting land. That supports biodiversity at each of our farms.

Our farmers have also partnered with universities on the cranberry itself, looking at quality, yield, or mitigating rot effects — all things affected by climate change. Cultivating more robust, varieties can help with that. From an R&D lens, it’s about how can we help farmers understand that biodiversity and share those best practices across our regions.