Snack idea bubbles up: Fizzy Fruit.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Getting kids to eat their fruits and vegetables can be a ticklish subject, so maybe what's needed is some bubbles.

Enter Fizzy Fruit. By injecting fresh fruit with the same carbon dioxide that puts the suds in soda and champagne, the startup company hopes to tickle the taste buds of the grade-school set and just maybe get them to change their minds about what's good for them.

That's part of the reason the Portland-based company has been test-marketing the fruit in school cafeterias in Albany. Tammy Marquez, Fizzy Fruit's CEO, said the response so far is everything the company had hoped.

`They all want to know, `When can we have it again? When can we buy it in the store?' ' she said. "Kids are very excited about it."

Fizzy Fruit takes an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach to getting children to eat healthier snacks. It takes the soda pop fizz that kids like and puts it in a fresh fruit package.

Pour some Fizzy Fruit - grapes are being used in Albany cafeterias - into a cup and you'll actually see the bubbles effervescing out of the fruit. Pop a few in your mouth and you get that same fizzy bite that comes from soda but with the taste of grapes.

Carbon dioxide is the only thing added to the fruit; otherwise, it has the same vitamins, minerals, water and natural sugar of regular, fresh-off-the-shelf fruit, the company says. Just how the carbonation happens is something of a trade secret, but it involves putting the fruit into a small, portable chamber that is pressurized with carbon dioxide overnight.

Come morning, voila: Fizzy Fruit, ready to serve.

The process for putting the fizz in the fruit was developed in the past five years at the Food Innovation Center, a joint project of Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

The center has been working to develop the process with Fizzy Fruit inventor Galen Kaufman, a Texas neurobiologist who happened upon the idea after biting into a pear that had been kept in a cooler chilled with dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide.

During a couple of days, some of the carbon dioxide had gone directly from a solid to a gas and been absorbed into the liquid juice in the pear. When Kaufman bit into it, it fizzed.

He patented the idea and brought it to the Food Innovation Center in 1999. OSU research engineer Qingyue Ling has been working on ways to mass produce and package the fruit, and the result is what's being tested in schools.

Because the carbon dioxide is absorbed into the liquid naturally present in fruit, just about any fruit can be turned into Fizzy Fruit, Ling said. He has fizzed apples, oranges, watermelon and pineapple, to name a few.

The process even could be used on vegetables, but so far no one's shown any interest in fizzy broccoli.

Ling said Fizzy Fruit has more than just novelty going for it. Part of the reason kids like soda - and salty, crispy things as well - is because their senses of taste and smell aren't fully developed yet and they find more healthful snacks somewhat bland. The carbonation in Fizzy Fruit jangles the taste buds in the same way it does with soda and makes the fruit seem yummier, he said.

"They'll say these just taste better," he said, pouring out some fizzy grapes at the Portland lab. "It's a more intense flavor delivery."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Fizzy Fruit is fun stuff.

"Kids like something fun," said Ling, whose three sons already are big Fizzy Fruit fans. `If you say, `Let's go eat Fizzy Fruit,' it's a different reaction.'

John Henry Wells, the Food Innovation Center's director, said that ties in with recent trends aimed at making foods more appealing to kids. Unfortunately, he said, the trend has produced some questionable concoctions, such as macaroni and cheese on a stick and green ketchup.

"Personally, I think this is immensely more practical than green ketchup," Wells said.

Marquez, though, makes it clear that Fizzy Fruit isn't just trying to be the flavor of the week in the world of kid's food. The company is building its brand around the idea of more healthful snacking and positioning it as an alternative to the sugary and salty vending machine snacks that are finding less favor among parents and educators.

"This is about promoting healthy lifestyles, healthy choices," she said. "Healthy kids learn better, and we promote health, wellness and fitness."

So what's next for Fizzy Fruit? The company has signed an agreement with food industry powerhouse Sodexho to expand distribution to more schools in Oregon and other Western states later this year and early next. It also plans to add fizzy apples and oranges to its menu and pick up other fruits as demand dictates.

Marquez said retail products are on the horizon, perhaps as soon as late this year. Adults, she said, need a reason to eat more healthfully, too.

"The consumer will really enjoy this kind of product," Marquez said. "The time is right."

CAPTION(S):

Carbon dioxide makes grapes get frothy as they're removed from a canister that injects the gas into the fruit. OSU's Qingyue Ling (left) and John Henry Wells talk about research that led to Fizzy Fruit.