Cranberry Extract (PACs)

Cranberry extract is made from the fruit of Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton (family Ericaceae), the American or large cranberry. It is a different species from the European small cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos, and from lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, and the three are not interchangeable even though customs groups their juices under one subheading. Commercial cranberry is grown in North America — Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Quebec and British Columbia — with additional volume from Chile; it is not an Indian crop, so this is an imported-raw-material line supplied against a documented origin chain. The extract is produced from whole fruit or from press residue by aqueous or aqueous-ethanol extraction, membrane refining and spray drying, and is distinct from cranberry juice powder, which is a juice preparation carrying fruit sugars and usually a maltodextrin carrier with only a small fraction of the PAC content. The standardisation marker is proanthocyanidin content, and the arithmetic buyers care about is straightforward: 36 mg of PAC per daily serving is the reference figure the trade formulates to, which at a 15% PAC extract means 240 mg of extract and at 25% means 144 mg. What is not straightforward is the number itself, because PAC values are method-dependent to a degree that catches new buyers out. The industry method is the 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde colorimetric assay, adopted as AOAC Official Method 2019.06 following an inter-laboratory validation of the 96-well DMAC procedure; that validation compared the procyanidin A2 dimer standard against a cranberry-PAC (c-PAC) reference material, and the two standards do not give the same figure on the same sample. Folin and generic UV polyphenol numbers are higher again and are not PAC values at all. We report the method and the calibration standard alongside every assay, and we will not quote a bare percentage. Because DMAC measures a chromophore and cannot tell where the PAC came from, identity is established separately: cranberry PACs are predominantly A-type interflavan linked, and A-type character is confirmed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry along the lines of AOAC First Action Method 2019.05, supported by the cranberry anthocyanin pattern of cyanidin and peonidin galactosides and arabinosides. That identity work is not optional, and it carries an allergen dimension. Published market surveys have found roughly a quarter of commercial cranberry extracts and a majority of finished cranberry supplements differing materially from authentic fruit, with adulteration by Morus nigra and hibiscus among the findings, and PAC-rich extracts more broadly are adulterated with grape seed extract, which is B-type, and with peanut skin extract, which is A-type and therefore passes a naive A-type screen while introducing a peanut allergen into a product labelled free of it. We therefore declare cranberry extract explicitly peanut-free on the specification and support that with lot-level profiling rather than a supplier attestation. The extract is vegan and vegetarian, with no bovine, porcine, marine or insect material and no other FDA 9 or EU 14 allergen inputs; carriers are named with their botanical origin. Cranberry extract powder holds a US GRAS notice, GRN 873, which received an FDA no-questions letter for use in beverages, beverage bases and ready-to-drink coffee at 150 mg per 8 oz serving. Heavy metals, pesticide residues, microbiology and residual solvents are tested lot-wise and every consignment ships with COA, specification, MSDS, allergen and GMO statements and origin documentation. This record describes composition and function only; no therapeutic or disease claim is made or supported.